GE 245: How Animoto’s Brad Jefferson Raised $30M+ and Reinvented the Video Creation Service (podcast)

Hey everyone! On this episode of Growth Everywhere, I share the mic with Brad Jefferson, CEO and co-founder of Animoto, a service that helps businesses of all sizes create personalized marketing videos.

Tune in to hear Brad discuss what sets Animoto apart from other video creation companies, the Facebook app they created that kickstarted their video creation service, and how getting Amazon as an investor helped them on their journey to their success.

Download podcast transcript [PDF] here: How Animoto’s Brad Jefferson Raised $30M+ and Reinvented Video Creation Service TRANSCRIPT

Time-Stamped Show Notes:

• [00:45]Before we begin, please leave a review and rating and subscribe to the Growth Everywhere Podcast!
• [01:34] The mission and purpose of Animoto.
• [02:00] Brad and co-founders wondered how they could provide high-quality video to any business with content the businesses already had.
• [02:26] Their biggest effort today is creating marketing videos for social media.
• [02:45] In the early days, they were focused on the consumer.
• [03:12] People found them to be different from similar businesses.
• [03:34] Their cohort of professional photographers (their customers) suggested certain features that would improve Animoto’s service.
• [04:08] Animoto wasn’t focused on one specific type of customer when they started.
• [06:21] It took Animoto five years to transition into their current business model.
• [07:20] Brad’s first job was with an enterprise software company named “Onyx Software”, which was CRM software.
• [07:34] He stayed with Onyx for eight years; he worked in a variety of roles including sales and operations.
• [08:13] He helped create an interactive directory at Dartmouth called, “Green Book”; this was prior to Facebook.
• [09:14] Brad’s co-founders’ backgrounds are in video.
• [10:00] Animoto came about because the co-founders realized there were limitations in the video software they were working with.
• [11:30] Brad and his co-founders enlisted a lawyer to make sure things were fair for everyone and wouldn’t risk their friendship.
• [12:00] Trust at the core of your company is important to the culture.
• [12:53] You have to have the hard conversations upfront to prevent dealing with glitches and soured relationships in the future.
• [13:12] Animoto is a subscriptions service, where consumers pay $99/year to make unlimited slideshows.
• [13:20] Business pay $250/year to create unlimited marketing videos.
• [13:30] The product is a lot like Squarespace or Canva.
• [14:32] Animoto has had over 20 million people try the product.
• [15:20] If you want to create a video, much like the ones you find on Facebook with your own photos and content, that’s what you want to use Animoto for.
• [15:48] They naively thought creating a good product would be enough to be successful.
• [16:25] They tried to figure out their distributions channels.
• [16:33] They were seduced by Google’s Orchid, but it brought in zero customers.
• [17:31] Animoto created a Facebook app that would automatically create videos for you using your photos.
• [17:43] However, it would get automatically shared and in order to view it, you needed to download the app, which would then create a new video, so on and so forth.
• [18:42] They had 200 EC2 servers in 2008 and in order to handle a spike in customers, they needed to scale up to 5000 servers.
• [19:40] It served as a great case study for the ability to scale up quickly.
• [19:52] This also led to Amazon becoming an investor.
• [20:04] They are always optimizing Google Paid Search or Facebook video ads .They aren’t doing any brand-related marketing: it’s all performance based.
• [20:35] Word of mouth is the best channel for their marketing thus far.
• [21:06] Their biggest challenge thus far has been about their identity crisis as a business: figuring out who to target as a customer is always a trial.
• [22:20] One new tool that has added value to Brad’s life is his Peloton bike. He’s on it all the time and he thinks it has improved his work because of the raised endorphins.
• [23:38] He doesn’t work while he’s on the bike, but he still thinks it increases his productivity.
• [25:08] One must-read book that Brad recommends is The Advantage by Patrick Lencioni.
• [25:29] He loves the book’s message that companies that stand the test of time aren’t just smart with their strategies, they are also really healthy in terms of their culture.

Resources From This Interview:

• Animoto
• Orchid
• Facebook Video Ads
• Peloton
• Must-read book: The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business Hardcover by Patrick Lencioni
• Brad on Twitter
• Brad@animoto.com

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