Friday, a startup based in Portland that develops remote-working software applications, has been named a finalist in the Zoom App Marketplace Competition, a program similar to “Shark Tank” that is being broadcast via virtual meeting service Zoom.

The winner will be eligible for potential funding of up to $2 million from leading venture capital firms including Sequoia, the firm that invested in LinkedIn, PayPal and Dropbox. Friday is one of 10 finalists in the competition.

Zoom Video Communications Inc. is a communications technology company headquartered in San Jose, California. It provides video telephony and online chat services through a cloud-based, peer-to-peer software platform and is used for teleconferencing, telecommuting, distance education and social relations.

According to Zoom, the company had hundreds of submissions spanning industries, uses and business models. The 10 finalists demonstrate the potential to bring innovation and utility to Zoom customers, it said, while also having a sustainable business model that leverages the Zoom platform.

“We use Zoom for all of our real-time meetings as a remote team,” said Luke Thomas, founder and CEO of Friday, in a statement. “When we saw the announcement for the competition, we knew we had to apply because our software plays a complementary role.”

Thomas created Friday to prompt remote workers to stay connected in a meaningful way. Calls, email and video meetings can quickly overwhelm workers, he said. Friday prompts remote workers to share project updates with their boss, team or department.

In March, Thomas announced that the company would issue licenses to its software to Maine companies to use at no cost for the rest of 2020.

According to a recent Gallup poll, three in five U.S. workers who have been doing their jobs from home during the coronavirus pandemic would prefer to continue to work remotely as much as possible, even after public health restrictions are lifted, Thomas said.

The winner of the competition will be announced during a live-streamed event that begins at 3 p.m. Friday. Anyone can register to watch the event on Zoom’s website.

“In the past two months, we’ve seen a tectonic shift towards remote work due to COVID-19,” Thomas said. “This new way of working creates challenges that must be solved. After working remotely for several years and experiencing these problems firsthand, we’ve built software that bundles the habits of high-performing remote teams into a solution that anyone can start using in a few minutes.”

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