Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Brandlive: Finding A Model For Portland's Tech Startups
Brandlive is a live video platform with website and Facebook integration that allows a company to conduct product demonstrations on the web to connect directly with their audience. Interested customers can ask questions through live chat and it is all accessible using a mobile device, truly extending the brick and mortar experience. This also takes what is typically a one-to-one shopping experience inside the store to a one-to-many experience online with a focus on the interactive element. Think of a better QVC experience designed to answer your specific questions.
The company recently won the Angel Oregon's Launch Stage audience favorite and the approximately $300,000 Launch Stage investment and prize. Angel Oregon is the Portland-based angel investment program through Oregon Entrepreneurs Network (OEN). Their focus is to provide entrepreneurs the opportunity to compete and connect with investors as they fine tune their business idea in hopes of winning an investment award and the opportunity to leverage what they’ve learned.
BrandLive was founded in July of 2010 by Fritz Brumder and Ben McKinley and has generated revenue on a monthly basis since it began. They have built a strong foundation by the work that they have done and the support they have received, coming out of the 2012 class from the Portland Seed Fund. "We built Brandlive with little money, brute force and a focus on knowing our product" according to Fritz Brumder. Brandlive emerged from Cascade Web Development, which developed web apps for ten years and they have used that experience to be the first in the market for their product.
There seems to be an emerging trend in developing consumable video content on all platforms as an effective marketing tool with the success of Hulu, Ustream, Vine, and YouTube. Brandlive is browser based, light weight, and easy to setup by the customer and access by the consumer.
So far Brandlive has been well received by its customer base as well, which is now over fifty. "We allow a company to put a face to a brand, by placing a real person in front of the camera." Brumder said that Brandlive has benefitted from being in Portland and being actively involved with local investors.
"The ecosystem here is stronger than ever. You have access to Seattle and San Francisco. People here understand scalable enterprise." There has also been great benefit to being part of the Portland Seed Fund and OEN. "They really help to coordinate the process and push you in the right direction. With the Portland Seed Fund and OEN we’ve found that the people we worked with understand money matters and are excellent connectors." They helped to connect them with Facebook to help build out their API.
Angel Oregon 2014 Chair Lauren Wallace thinks that Brandlive could be a model for other startups, "They were very strong from the very beginning, having been a recent graduate of the Portland Seed Fund."
Wallace mentioned that this really benefitted Brandlive and would benefit other startups as well, "They started with a good pedigree and stamp of credibility plus they had a good presentation out of the gate."
"It really is a simple idea and a robust platform. If I was in retail I would want that platform." Wallace hopes that startups will apply for Angel Oregon 2014 and see how Brandlive went about it as they move forward with their own startups. Brandlive may be a future success story for others to follow.
John Gurnick (@gurnick) is covering Portland's startup scene for Northwest Innovation