Interview with Marcus Schmitt (CEO of COPYTRACK)
SQUEEZE- the new Interview Series
@knozaki2015 will interview CEOs, Lawyers, Steemit Whales, Activists, Entrepreneurs, VCs, Models and many more.
The Interview Series starts with former CEO of www.Flightright.com Marcus Schmitt, who is now running COPYTRACK in Berlin (Copytrack finds copyright infringements)
#1 Which problems does your startup solve?
Our service is dedicated to everybody who provides images online. These pictures get stolen countless times everyday by being copied and distributed illegally. The creators have an enormous financial disadvantage because of that. Until now there is not much one can do about it. Copyright infringements are difficult to pursue and considered a trivial offense. In addition to the time required detecting an infringement and to take actions against it, there always remains a legal risk. COPYTRACK provides a tool to risk less and comfortably assert their demands. We offer our service free of charge and even bear the risk of legal fees. All we do is keeping a success-related commission.
It´s easy - just upload pictures - we deliver the worldwide matches - you decide whether its legal or COPYTRACK should follow up - we take care of the rest!
Whilst doing all that we always aim for a fair settlement between all sides and emphasize on performing polite but decisive for our customers.
#2 How did you come up with the idea for your startup?
In my head ideas are sinning around all day, and based on my experience so far I am linking many possibilities and networks in my environment. So with COPYTRACK I was looking for a legal issue, that is a mass phenomenon and has the potential of being automated. However I did not expect this project to be so extremely complex in two fields. Creating a powerful image search engine and image matching engine as well as building a highly scalable post-licensing, collection and claiming platform.
#3 Can you tell me a story about a customer using your product?
Just two weeks ago, we had a customer uploading his images. He immediately worked on his hits & results and submitted a claim for post licensing. Our engine automatically calculated the official fee and contacted the infringing party. They responded on our settlement platform and we had a mutual settlement and post-licensing after 15 hours.
Everybody was happy!
#4 Who is the team of your startup?
The management team consists of two extremely experienced people. Our operational management is assembled of people I already work with since a few years and the rest of the team are young, motivated and inspiring people.
The main thing is that we love to work together, have a lot of fun and like a lot what we do.
#5 How do you finance your startup?
We had a initial investment and I also put some money on the table.
Our business started so successful that we can grow organically now, but still we want to speed up and might take another round of investment.
#6 What is your go to market approach?
Well, the area of photography is quite well organized. Photo- and News- agencies are contacted directly or on certain congresses. Photographers are well organized in blogs and social media, so we do our online marketing homework.
Another important step is to be present internationally. So we just opened up subsidiaries in New York and Tokyo. This way we have no difference in time zones and also get to know the markets and legal systems much better.
#7 How do you monetize and scale?
Fees are easy and transparent:
The use of our service is free.
We just keep a success fee of 30% in case we are successful
That´s it!
Scaling means being highly automized. Or whole system, the image technology as well as all licensing and legal processes are almost fully automatic and connected with a sophisticated business intelligence. This way it does not matter whether we receive 100 pictures or 100 million pictures. Our engines scale as we go. This is also the key to our low cost structure.
#8 Where will your startup be in five years?
For sure we will be market leading in this area. But we have much bigger plans and these will be a revolution for the market of online image licensing.
#9 What mistakes have you made thus far and what have you learned?
Plenty I guess :-)
Initially I trusted some business partners, they copied my idea while we were trying to build up our business.
When I found out we stopped the cooperation. Now they still try to copy us and think they are smart - but they have no idea how complex this topic is and actually they are not smart at all - so I don´t care ;-)
#10 What is the first bit of advice you’d give to someone who’s thinking of starting their own business?
Find competent and loyal partners that complete your competencies, constantly challenge your own business model and if it feels right - don´t give up. If it´s not fun - don´t do it!
#11 Are you joining Steemit.com?
We are currently looking into Steemit, and i will join Steemit in the next days.
Thank you very much Marcus Schmitt, we see you soon on www.steemit.com!!!
If you like my Post, please follow me!
I am blogging about the following topics :
- I travel the world (Travel and Restaurant Blog)
- Exposed (Uncovering Stories you need to know)
- Lifehacks (How to save money, Introduction of cool products)
- SPOTTED (Limited Edition Food and Drinks)
- Hidden Gems (German Version)
- SQUEEZE (Interview Series)
never leave room to grow...great concept...
yep ;) i think the only time they have to leave is for photocina etc.
Sweet, nice service, good interview, thanks :)
hello. thank you for your comment.
its my first interview ever, so i was a bit afraid if you like it. so thank you!
Interesting interview and business concept!
yes the business concept is super interesting. and as so many people here are in photography, i thought it might be interesting
thanks for sharing this material. I like what you posted. if you want you can visit my blogg you. Thank you
will do ! thanks for commenting
This is really good, I am glad to see you doing interviews, but next time don't be afraid to ask about the hookers and cocaine :)
the first rule of hookers and cocaine is you don't talk about hookers and cocaine.
well this is a startup. i will for sure ask that once i get the chance to interview @gonzo
You won't get much out of me, I only hooked for a few months, but maybe if you give me some time I can come up with some better stories :)
haha ;) yeah once you have something i will interview you
Very nice! We should be very careful about using images illegally. I take almost all,of my own pictures with an iPhone 5. :) UPVOTED
;) yeah the crazy thing is. they can every identify the tiniest spot taken from a picture with your iPhone and than re-used. or if you use part of it, they will catch it too.
Amazing! My bet is that 90% of Steemit users are possible "victims" of theirs!
might be. i think its great for artist to have the chance to reach licensing deals without the financial risk .