Stream Chat & Welcome Create Experience-First Virtual Events Focused on Human Connection
Blog post from Stream
Welcome, a virtual event software company founded in May 2020, addresses the need for an experience-first platform that enhances human connection through online events, offering features like video chat, green rooms for speakers, and sophisticated in-app messaging. Co-founder Tiger Shen highlights the decision to integrate Stream Chat's pre-built React SDK to provide a reliable chat function that supports emojis, gifs, and rich links, essential for competitive virtual events. This choice allowed Welcome to rapidly launch and scale, accommodating events with thousands of attendees, and focus on innovating event interfaces rather than building messaging from scratch. The integration with Stream Chat proved crucial as Welcome experienced rapid employee growth and secured a $12 million Series A funding round, positioning the company for significant expansion while continuing to prioritize a unique virtual event experience.