10,000 customers graphic
Happy Customers

Happy Customers, Now.

Over 10,000 businesses worldwide pay Olark to help them create happier customers and better sales. They share the vision that our founders had five years ago in a house in Palo Alto - that live chat is more than just two people talking. It‘s an opportunity to connect with a real human being.

These 10,000 paying subscribers didn't show up overnight. Scroll down to learn more about what it takes to power the Olark network and how we got here.

Olark at 10K

“We created Olark to humanize the web and bring back relationships between business and their customers.” - Ben Congleton

Launched with the Y Combinator Summer 2009 class, Olark brought a vision to the market of an entirely new, on-page live chat experience. What if your customers could talk to you while still browsing your website without interruption? A great idea. We’ve never looked back.

Time to 1,000 subscribers

1 year 7 months

February 2011

Time to 5,000 subscribers

3 years 4 months

November 2012

Time to 10,000 subscribers

5 years 4 months

November 2014

Customer service software is growing fast

Zendesk has shown the world how fast the customer service cloud software market is growing. Just as Zendesk made waves when they announced 10,000 paying customers back in 2011, Olark is proving that live chat software is now a critical part of any customer service cloud solution. Zendesk made it to 48,000 customers in 2014. Can Olark make it there tomorrow still pulling itself by its bootstraps?

Launch
10,000
48,000
server holding tray

Venture Backed

2007
2011
2014
Olark Logo

Bootstrapped

2009
2014
?
Chat Is Huge!

“What live chat has become is truly remarkable. Every year we see thousands of new users come online, some just testing the water, others ready to push the limits of innovation.” - Matt Pizzimenti

Chats over Olark (all-time)

51,900,135

Chats
Chats per year over Olark
  • 2009
  • 2010
  • 2011
  • 2012
  • 2013
  • 2014
  • 51,636
  • 540,705
  • 3,669,262
  • 8,030,399
  • 14,491,910
  • 23,210,198
Chats per day on Olark Servers 2014

63,589

server holding tray
Messages with a smile

~1.2%

Smile
Median initial response time

29

Seconds

Stopwatch
Median chat duration

5

Minutes

Hourglass
Our customers are great

“The customers are what make Olark truly unique. On any given day I might talk to a company making travel easier, leading whitewater rafting adventures, selling bikes, raising money for social justice issues, and streamlining business process, and no two days are ever the same.” - Roland Osborne

Pager Duty

Since adding Olark, we're able to obtain data that has been extremely useful and actionable. Now almost exactly 50% of our support communications are over chat.

- Ryan Hoskin, Customer Support Manager

Front App

We highly value having direct conversations with our customers and prospects at Front. And Olark drives in a ton of them. We convert more trial signups, help customers faster, and have invaluable conversations that influence product decisions.

- Rob Carpenter, VP Marketing

Statuspage.io

Bonobos
Trunk Club
The Black Tux
Acquia
Indeed.com
Our customers are located in over 150 countries
World Map
Date of first paying Olark customer

August 19, 2009

Cash Register
Olark Now

“The landscape in 2014 has completely changed from when we started out in 2009, yet here we are - still bootstrapped, profitable and proud.” - Zach Steindler

32

Olarkers

Spanning
  • 11 States
  • 18 Cities
  • 4 Countries

10,911/km

Farthest trip taken by an Olarker to work in person. Sao Paulo to Seattle.

Airplane

150,057

Pets

  • 150k Bees
  • 19 Dogs
  • 17 Cats
  • 10 Hens
  • 4 Ducks
  • 2 Rabbits
  • 2 Snakes
  • 1 Lizard
  • 1 Mouse
  • 1 Mossball

760,939

HipChat messages sent

Cats and HipChat Logo

1,000+

Climbing walls climbed

Climbing Wall

1

Dungeons and Dragons games played

Dungeons and Dragons

1

Holiday Video Produced

Github Octocat Mascot

30+

Times customers have sent goodies to an Olark office

Cupcake

20+

Number of times Darius Rucker's  Wagon Wheel has been karaoked

Wagon Wheel
Olark Team Collage
Olark Team

Olark Operations

322,643

Desk.com support tickets answered

Help Support Raft

1,925

JIRA tickets opened

Jira Logo

153

Github repositories

Github Octocat Mascot

199.82

Average chats per day

Chats

1,657

Tshirts mailed

Tshirt

250

Servers

Server
The Olark Timeline
2009
Finding the cofounders
March Original team meets up at  CoffeeHouseCoders
Roland
April Hab.la accepted into Techstars by Jason Mendelson
AprilFounding team gets a phone call from  Y Combinator and accepts offer
Ben Tech Now
AprilBen and Roland present at TechNow 2009
Habla to Olark
JulyHab.la name changed to Olark
AugustZach joins as fourth cofounder
AugustOlark launches in  Techcrunch
AugustY Combinator  Demo Day for S09
Olark Founders
Map PinLocation: Palo Alto
2010
Bootstrapping
Revenue per day: $260
Matt
Full change to All Hands Support
cart saver
JulyOlark launches  Shopping Cart Saver
OctoberOlark introduces annual plans
Tree Lights
DecemberThe first lighting of the redwood hosted in California, star visible from University Ave, Caltrain Station
Map PinLocation: Palo Alto
Team Size: 4
2011
Our first hires
MarchFirst employee hired (Aaron Wilson)
February1,000 paying customers
Zach Olark
DecemberBay Area team hosts the Lighting of the Redwood
Map PinLocations: Palo Alto, Ann Arbor, Virginia
Team Size: 7
2012
Growing the team
April Olarkers win top places in the Delivering Happiness,  Happiness Hunt
JuneOlark launches  Targeted Chat
Olark Team Photo
JulyFirst retreat, at the Russian River in Sonoma. We write the original  Olark core values, CAMPS
SeptemberFirst European Hire (Joe Westhead)
Olark Team Photo
OctoberBen presents  All Hands Support at Userconf
November5,000 paying customers
Tree lighting
December Third lighting of the redwood features snow.olark.com, Arduinos and raspberry pie.
Map PinLocations: Ann Arbor, Virginia, Palo Alto, Armenia, New York
Team Size: 12
2013
Building teams at Olark
May First South American Hire (Fernando)
June Olark Headquarters leaves 245 Ramona, Palo Alto and heads to South Park, San Francisco
Olark Team Photo
July Olark 2nd Retreat in beautiful Traverse City Michigan
Lighting
December Olark’s first lighting of the redwood in the San Francisco, hue lights light up the party.
Map PinLocations: San Francisco, San Jose, Brazil, Phoenix, Philadelphia, San Diego, Ann Arbor, Palo Alto, New York, Yorkshire, Greensboro, Missoula
Team Size: 21
2014
Organization
Olark Team
July Olark third Anual Retreat in Seattle
November Launched  Chat Ratings
Roland in Chair
November10,000 paying customers
Map PinLocations: San Francisco, Portland, Greensboro, San Jose, Brazil, Phoenix, Philly, San Diego, Ann Arbor, Detroit, Palo Alto, Toronto, New York, LA, Boulder, Austin, Santiago, Missoula
Team Size: 31

Friends

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Thank you to all of our amazing customers!