Owl Labs Announces Former CarGurus Executive Frank Weishaupt as Chief Executive Officer

BOSTON, Jan. 15, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Owl Labs, the video conferencing company and creator of the 360° smart conferencing camera Meeting Owl, announces its appointment of former CarGurus (CARG) executive Frank Weishaupt as Chief Executive Officer. Weishaupt's appointment comes after significant revenue and customer growth in 2018.

Leveraging his background in strategic market expansion and building global teams, Weishaupt will focus on enhancing the Owl Labs' vision – to expand from a video conferencing product to a comprehensive communication and productivity solution for hybrid teams of remote and in-office employees.

Weishaupt previously served as SVP of Sales at CarGurus and played an instrumental role in the company's growth, leading to a successful IPO in October 2017. Prior to joining CarGurus, Weishaupt served as Chief Operating Officer at Jumptap, leading to an acquisition by Millennial Media. He also served in executive roles at Yahoo! and Criteo, which had a successful IPO in 2013.

"Frank's experience scaling businesses across industries along with the passion he has for fixing the dreaded state of video meetings today makes him a great complement to this already impressive team," said board member and investor Antonio Rodriguez.

In 2018, Owl Labs grew annual revenue 8X from 2017 and increased its customer base nearly tenfold (9.6X) — providing Weishaupt with serious momentum.

"As someone who has managed global teams the majority of my career, I've witnessed the gaps in technology that make it exceptionally hard for remote participants to be seen, heard and most importantly, understood," Weishaupt said. "My focus as Chief Executive will be expanding the vision for the Meeting Owl product line for essential use cases where distance impedes collaboration and overall productivity. I'm looking forward to working with the extraordinary team at Owl Labs to bring high fidelity collaboration to life and making the future of work a tangible reality."  

Since its founding in 2014 by Chief Technology Officer Mark Schnittman and former CEO Max Makeev, Owl Labs has been on a mission to provide remote workers with a better, more inclusive workplace experience. The Boston-based startup has secured $7.3 million in funding to date, with Matrix Partners leading the Series A round and Playground Global participating in June of 2016.  In June 2017, Owl Labs launched Meeting Owl, one of the first IoT smart devices designed for business.

Designed to improve collaboration, Meeting Owl is helping businesses, universities and nonprofit organizations reach their own growth and productivity goals. And as of December 2018, the number of meetings conducted using the Meeting Owl increased 14X compared to 2017 – with a final count of 300,000 meetings, totaling more than 280,000 hours or 11,980 days.

Makeev will continue his role as cofounder at Owl Labs and focus on product development, manufacturing and operations.

To learn more about Owl Labs' growth in 2018 visit https://www.owllabs.com/year-in-review.

About Owl Labs
Owl Labs is a video conferencing company and creator of the Meeting Owl, a 360° smart video conferencing camera. With the growth of remote and distributed work, teams need better technology to meet and stay connected. Owl Labs' products will set a new standard for the remote meeting experience. Learn more about the company at www.owllabs.com.

SOURCE Owl Labs

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