His first video venture, Jumpcut, Mike sold to Yahoo! Currently, Mike is the founder / CEO of the Scenery, a video collaboration platform backed by Greylock, Craft, and Figma.
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Evolution of Video Technology and Startups
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And so we kind of had this idea that Ophoto for video was going to happen, and Chad and Steve had that same idea at YouTube and there are a couple other people. We pitched that idea as a group at Stanford and Eric Schmidt was the professor and my buddy was sitting next to him and he said this should get funded.
(00:00-08:44)
Mike Folgner, a video technology innovator, talks about the evolution of video from when he started his first company, Jumpcut, in 2003/2004 to today. He explains how Jumpcut was one of the first companies to introduce the idea of Ophoto for video and how they built an in-browser Flash-based video editor for consumers. The speakers also discuss the competition with YouTube and how Jumpcut ended up selling to Yahoo. Finally, Mike shares his experience as an entrepreneur post-exit and the lessons he learned along the way.
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Challenges and Opportunities in Video Streaming
Try to be successful within the organization that you're actually a part of now, and the more you can do that I think, the happier you are.
We learned a lot and I think the lesson there for me is, like you know, you can get in the market. You need to learn, you need to be fast, you need to cut, you need to cut things that aren't working, even when your team kind of like is.
(08:44-22:06)
Mike Folgner shares his experience transitioning from a digital rights-friendly business to competing against YouTube's non-rights-friendly platform. He also talks about his decision to return to video and launch his next startup, Snappy TV, which provides high-value licensed content for clients like the NFL and NBA. Mike explains the process of finding the right opportunity and the importance of understanding the problem deeply to stick with it.
Enterprise SaaS and Twitter's Acquisition
(22:06-26:35)
Mike Folgner shares the challenges he faced when trying to raise a growth round for his enterprise SaaS business in 2012 and 2013. Investors did not see the potential in his market size, but Mike had an intuition that the market was larger than what people were saying. He eventually decided to sell to Twitter. Mike also talks about his experience at Twitter, including his team's 1000% growth, Twitter's best acquisition, and his thoughts on Twitter's culture now.
Twitter Experience and Thoughts on Musk
I didn't want to be a person complaining, I wanted to be a person helping, like I just wanted to kind of like get in the boat and, just like you know, pull people in and I really tried to just reframe things and try to focus on the things that could change, and one of the things that did change was the focus on data-driven and decisions in machine learning.
(26:35-30:10)
The speakers discuss Mike Folgner's time working at Twitter, where he was part of the flat organizational culture and the world-class sales team. They explore how Adam Bain's sales team could sell anything and how the team used data and machine learning to turn the company around. They analyze Elon Musk's attempt to buy Twitter and Mike's thoughts on his tenure as an entrepreneur.
Building Scenery
(30:10-43:54)
Mike Folgner describes his journey with his third startup, Scenery, which he calls the "Figma of video collaboration." He reflects on his leadership style and how he is adapting it to this new venture, and talks about the team he has assembled, featuring talent with a variety of experiences. Mike also shares his experience fundraising in a COVID climate and the unique challenges associated with it.
AI and Video Content Creation
I think AI is on the way. I mean, talk about giving me hair. Ai is on the way for that, but it's not good enough yet. Otherwise I'd have a different look right now. But actually I think AI is going to affect everything.
(43:54-52:36)
Mike Folgner explains the use of AI in video production and how it can be beneficial to the creative process. He shares how AI can help create content for a variety of platforms and devices, from webinars to social media. Mike's experience of using AI in his third startup, Scenery, is discussed, and how it can lead to interactive experiences that create an emotional connection with viewers. Finally, Mike talks about how AI can help identify valuable content and make it easier to produce.
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Innovative Collaboration in Content Creation
(52:36-55:24)
Mike Folgner shares his journey transitioning to a digital rights-friendly business, the challenges he faced raising a growth round, and his time working at Twitter. The speakers explore his third startup, Scenery, and how AI can be used to create engaging content quickly. Mike reflects on how video innovation and collaboration can be aided by AI.
Check the the episode's Transcript (AI-generated) HERE.
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