Meet the client: Nate Macleitch, CEO of Quickblox

Welcome to our very first Meet the Client series, profiling the people behind the exciting companies who we support with legal services.

In this opening interview we speak to Nate Macleitch, CEO and owner of Quickblox, a company previously described as providing ‘WhatsApp in a box’.

Name and job title:

Nate Macleitch, CEO and owner of Quickblox

What is it your company does?

We’ve been described as ‘Whatsapp in a box’, giving you the tools to quickly and securely add features like video calling, voice calling, group and instant messaging to your mobile or web applications.

We do this by providing ready-made messaging apps or developer kits (APIs and SDKs for those in the know) which allow you to customise your products with communication functionality. You can choose from our cloud hosted solutions or choose to host, and therefore have complete ownership of the service, using AWS, Microsoft Azure or Google cloud servers.

We also have a professional services team who can help you develop and implement solutions.

Who do you work with?

We’ve got a great range of use cases thanks to the level of security and compliance our solutions provide. In the last few years we’ve had a lot of traction in the healthcare industry, for example providing doctor/patient communication.

Other uses include private internal communication for corporates, customer care services in the finance industry and buyer/seller messaging for e-commerce marketplaces.

And now we can boast clients such as Nextgen Healthcare, Medic Bleep, Major League Baseball Players Association and BNP Paribas.

How long have you been in business and how has your business grown?

The business has been going for roughly 6 or 7 years however I bought out my business partner last year and since then we’ve had a bit of a relaunch.

To date, we have over 30,000 developers signed up to use the platform and have powered over 10,000 apps.

What inspired you to start/join your business?

My background is in messaging and mobile content. I was there for the early days of companies using SMS to communicate with customers (think confirmation or delivery messages). From there my interest in mobile communications grew and that’s how myself and my former business partner started Quickblox, with the idea of providing communication as a service.

What have been the biggest recent challenges you have faced and how did you overcome them?

As you can imagine, taking sole ownership of the business was a complex task. There’s a lot to think about in terms of corporate governance and this is where the strategic advice from Harper James has been invaluable.

Right now, the challenge is how do we scale the business? We want this product to be used by developers and enterprises worldwide, so this means investing in marketing and sales to let the world know about what we do.

What are your hopes/goals for the next 1-3 years?

To be known as the leading brand providing communication solutions for healthcare, finance and marketplace related applications.

What has it been like to work with Harper James?

The team at Harper James have taken the time to understand my business which, combined with their commercial acumen, has provided me with clear and practical advice. We’ve worked together on corporate, commercial and intellectual property matters, and their proactive approach has given me peace of mind and allowed me to focus my attention on what’s important – the business.