It all started by being ignored.

Not intentionally, and not unkindly. But ignored in virtual classes and live streams.

That’s where StreamAlive comes from. Today it turns what people type in the Zoom, Microsoft Teams or Google Meet chat into live polls, word clouds and maps on the presenter’s screen, so every answer gets seen.

Joe Varghese, Tina Lyngdoh and Lux Narayan standing together in StreamAlive polo shirts against a dark wall. — StreamAlive’s co-founders, from left: Joe Varghese, Tina Lyngdoh and Lux Narayan.

Six courses, 56 livestreams, and a chat nobody could keep up with

Lux Narayan, co-founder of StreamAlive Why we built StreamAlive, 3:57, captioned

The idea first came to Lux Narayan, one of StreamAlive’s founders, when a medical emergency in his family meant taking an extended break. It was around the time the world went into lockdown for COVID-19. It was a surreal time.

Lux used his newfound “free time” to write a book, “Name, Place, Animal, Thing”, which had been in his head and in scattered digital notes for years. Not knowing the first thing about publishing a book, he took six courses on writing, editing and marketing one. All six were taught over a total of 56 livestreams on Zoom, YouTube Live, Google Meet, Hopin and Facebook Live.

95%

of the audience’s responses were ignored when people answered a presenter’s questions in the chat.

Live Chat

Pinned by the host What’s the hardest part of finishing a book?

P Priya Starting it 😅
T Tom the middle bit
A Aisha Editing my own writing
K Kenji finding an agent
M Maria Time. Always time.
S Sam Marketing it!!
O Olu query letters
F Fatima knowing when it’s done
B Ben self doubt tbh
L Lena Writing every single day
R Raj cutting scenes I love
C Chloe Formatting for Kindle
D Diego building an audience first
H Hana getting reviews
M Marcus endings!
S Sofia dialogue
A Arjun the cover
G Grace finding beta readers
L Leo titles are SO hard
M Mei keeping to a schedule
K Kofi research rabbit holes
N Nadia pricing the ebook
E Ethan chapter 3 lol
Z Zara honestly all of it
P Priya Starting it 😅
T Tom the middle bit
A Aisha Editing my own writing
K Kenji finding an agent
M Maria Time. Always time.
S Sam Marketing it!!
O Olu query letters
F Fatima knowing when it’s done
B Ben self doubt tbh
L Lena Writing every single day
R Raj cutting scenes I love
C Chloe Formatting for Kindle
D Diego building an audience first
H Hana getting reviews
M Marcus endings!
S Sofia dialogue
A Arjun the cover
G Grace finding beta readers
L Leo titles are SO hard
M Mei keeping to a schedule
K Kofi research rabbit holes
N Nadia pricing the ebook
E Ethan chapter 3 lol
Z Zara honestly all of it

A busy livestream chat, as the presenter sees it: answers scroll away before anyone can read them.

StreamAlive came from the chats in those streams: from messages flying by faster than the eye could see, from clunky engagement tools that took people off the platform they were watching on, and from presenters struggling to track, increase and convert engagement.

Out of that frustration, StreamAlive was born.

StreamAlive turns monologues into dialogues, and attendees into participants.

It helps presenters go from ~~talk, talk, talk~~ to listen, listen, listen.

The founders have built a company together before

StreamAlive is also an intersection of many individual journeys. The co-founders go back a long way: some were classmates decades ago, at engineering and business school. They were part of the founding team at Unmetric (acquired by Cision / Platinum Equity), and some of the Unmetric team are part of the StreamAlive team too.

Lux Narayan

CEO & Co-Founder

Author, TED speaker, comedian and serial entrepreneur
LinkedIn: Lux Narayan
Tina Lyngdoh

COO & Co-Founder

Previously founder of ShareMyCake
LinkedIn: Tina Lyngdoh
Joe Varghese

CTO & Co-Founder

Previously co-founder of Unmetric
LinkedIn: Joe Varghese
Ram Gupta

Chairman

Board member at Postman and Sanas. Advisor at Altos Ventures
LinkedIn: Ram Gupta

The StreamAlive team, on a Zoom call

A Zoom gallery of 18 StreamAlive team members, including Lux, Tina and Joe, smiling, waving and giving a thumbs up to the camera.

Over $3M raised, in two oversubscribed rounds

StreamAlive raised pre-seed rounds in January 2022 and January 2024, and both were oversubscribed. Its investors include early-stage firms that back companies creating new categories, like Speciale Invest, three world-renowned computer science professors at MIT, two CEOs of public companies, four CXOs at private tech unicorns, and experienced professionals and angel investors.