The Non-Technical Founder's Guide to Adding Video Calls

In the evolving landscape of product development, adding video call capabilities has become a baseline expectation rather than a competitive edge, particularly in sectors like telehealth, edtech, and marketplace platforms. Non-technical founders can implement video features swiftly using either a pre-built video calling API or SDK, sparing the need for deep engineering expertise. The primary decision hinges on whether to buy or build the video infrastructure, with factors such as product differentiation, speed to market, engineering capacity, and compliance requirements guiding this choice. WebRTC serves as the foundational protocol for most video calling products, but its complexity often necessitates leveraging existing SDKs and APIs that manage infrastructure components like STUN, TURN, and SFU servers. The guide emphasizes understanding cost dynamics based on concurrent users rather than total user counts and highlights that early-stage products often benefit from vendor solutions due to lower initial costs and faster deployment. It also outlines the importance of scalability planning, compliance consideration, and rigorous low-bandwidth testing, especially for markets with variable connectivity, to ensure a robust and user-friendly video experience.