started SeePort about two years ago in an attempt to find a better way of keeping in touch with my family that was, like most families, scattered accross the country. The company was incubated in Silicon Valley at the Founder Institute, and is now being launched on Kickstarter - a true crowd sourced endeavor from start to finish.
Back then I was trying to connect my family, about 30 or so kids and adults, from my 90 year old mom in Davis, Ca. to my daughter and her three kids in San Diego. I knew that seeing people in 
person was the best thing, and second to that was video, so I spent the next several months sending around webcams, videophones, and video chat software to my family. I chalked up countless hours downloading and setting up software and playing with people's computers.
I only successfully had a couple of Skype calls that worked. Calls were dropped, or just too bad to carry on decent conversations. My mother never did figure it out. My daughter gave up when her baby threw up on her computer's keyboard. My brother just swore at how much of a pain in the ass the whole software thing was. To have spontaneous conversations- the kind that lead to real connections- you had to dedicate a computer to the idea.If it were closed or off, or being used for something else, it wouldn't work. To top it off, you had to pick up a phone and call ahead of time just to let the person know you wanted to call - not exactly spontaneous.
All of us in the Valley always assume everyone has the latest technology, and forget all the knowledge and work we go through to get all of our devices working. It's just not the case for the majority of the world. So, I figured there had to be a better way.
Luckily I connected with Adeo Ressi who had just launched his Founder Institute - a place to get your company going and meet great team members in the process. There I met my three co-founders and got immense support from Adeao. Through various lucky circumstances I met the other members of the team through friends and chance meetings - and soon had one of the best teams I've everworked with - from a great design firm in San Francisco, to very supportive advisors, and to the most recent addition of Sandra Peterson - Marketing Director.
