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Show HN: Our little bootstrapped startup is powering CNN's ticker for NYE

154 points by randall ↗ HN
Our little startup you've never heard of, called Vidpresso, is powering CNN's New Year's Eve social media ticker! It's a huge accomplishment for us. We're originally Utah based (our other employees are in NM and Karachi though)

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bc3GdRrCUAAqLaN.jpg:large

I'm posting this more out of sheer excitement than anything. I wanted to share that any startup anywhere can have exciting wins like this... regardless of whether you're in SV, went to MIT, or whatever. Just make something people want, and it'll work out.

In 2014, start the thing you've been putting off. Maybe you'll have a fun new years like us next year! :)

As a company, our goal is pretty ambitious: We want to change the way video is produced, so we're starting with the big guys and working our way down to the little guys.

We're not hiring (yet) but if things like this appeal to you, we should definitely be friends. We have a writeup of our dreams here:

http://www.vidpresso.com/blog/secret-vidpresso-master-plan

43 comments

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vyrotek
Nice work! Cheers from another Utah startup :)
trojancd
Can you say "cheers" in Utah? You must be referring to non-alcoholic Red Punch, and not what "cheers" really implies! :) Congrats Russell.
vyrotek
We're obviously talking about Martinelli's Sparkling Cider
belluchan
How did you get CNN to know you exist much less use you? Did you have to tell them about your technology stack or do any kind of stability testing? Congratulations!
randall
It's actually pretty funny. You know those contests that kind of seem pointless and cost like $200 to enter? When we first launched, we entered one of those contests. We didn't win, but someone who produced Anderson Cooper's ill-fated daytime talk show was a judge, and passed us along to his team. After Anderson's daytime show was cancelled, CNN wanted an extremely simple system to show tweets on-air for a show they were launching.

Anyway, our peg is simplicity. If you read that whole blog post it'll make more sense, but yeah.

chatmasta
So you're telling me it's all in who you know?!
marcamillion
I think the real lesson is that it is all in how much you put yourself out there!
SkyMarshal
There were no family or college connections at work here, they just put themselves out there and serendipity. The former is necessary but not sufficient for the latter (need hard work and a product people want too).
ericd
Holy shit, congrats Randall! It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. Great start to 2014 :-)
graupel
Excellent Randall - congrats!
jjacobson
Hey Randall! I've heard of Vidpresso! Congrats on the hustle. Team Wediges is super excited for you.
photorized
Congrats! How did you get CNN to work with you?
astine
Awesome! Great work!
calebhicks
Congrats Randall. Very cool. Here's to a great 2014.
huslage
I had this same idea a few years ago after fighting with vizRT about something or other. Chyron was just as bad. Good job for doing it!
randall
If we have our way, we'll replace them anyway. :)
davidw
Heh, interesting. I did some work for those guys when I lived in Innsbruck. Interesting example of how an IT company can be pretty much anywhere.
dtsingletary
What sort of options do you have for curation, filtering? How do you find the wheat from the chafe?
randall
Our peg is simplicity. So really, people can search by keyword, filter out unwanted keywords, ban users, filter RTs, etc.

We don't do any big grouping or the sort yet... we just rely on producers to find the posts they're looking for.

jlees
Congrats Randall! If you can answer, I'd love to hear a bit more about the unknown-guy-vs-major-broadcaster relationship :) Did you have any issues as such a small company dealing with a big giant like CNN?
randall
So just like any company, the bigger your price, the more people who have to sign off. So given that we're really really inexpensive compared to most other companies, it's actually really easy for us to get spun up inside most broadcast companies.

CNN was a total non-issue. We showed them a demo at a conference, and then it was just a matter of getting the actual "button pressers" ready to use it on TV. Really simple.

Typically, we can just work with an individual production team, show our vision (the vision helps a lot. People love that we're not just hackers, we're broadcasters too) and get on the air really quickly.

CBS, for instance, had a production team for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. And the day before, they called us so they could use our system to get Instagram photos on the air. Normal broadcast procurement processes are like 6 weeks minimum.

Most local broadcasters are in "station groups", and sometimes when we get presented to the higher ups, it's a less-than-pleasant sales cycle because they do things the old way. (a billion meetings, back and forth on contracts, etc.) For the most part though, we're able to avoid that headache.

Does that answer your q? I think you were one of the first people I showed the prototype to at startup school a few years ago, so it's fun to talk about how far it's come since then! :)

jlees
Thanks for the detail! One of the folks I'm working with is having trouble banging their head against a big co, but it's good to hear you didn't have such issues. Hadn't thought about it in terms of price, beyond individual budget expense caps...

Awesome to see how far it's come, yeah!

eddieroger
Impressive tech. Congrats on landing CNN, and thanks for the motivation.
jakecarpenter
Awesome Randall, keep killing it in 2014!
randall
Thx dude! Someday we'll work together, I swear! :)
taylorhou
hey Randall! our vision is also to change how video is produced! :p glad to see a fellow mario award winner doing well. we're about to announce a big ass customer as well. let's catch up. we're moving to LA...being in video and all.
randall
Yeah dude. I'll ping you when I'm back in my "natural habitat" next week.
nakodari
As a fellow entrepreneur also running a bootstrapped startup, I have a question regarding the setup of your employees. Do you have offices in NM and Karachi, or do you have employees in these cities who work from home?

What channels and methods did you use to find them?

randall
Just employees from home. NM dude worked on a previous project with me... Karachi guy emailed us when we launched in TechCrunch a long time ago... and then just kept in contact. Turns out he used to live a few blocks from me in NYC. Pretty crazy.
rohancs
That's a serious move against someone like Mass Relevance. Super congrats, Randall! Would love to talk sometime :-)
randall
I don't know who you are, so shoot me an email. :) My contact info is in my HN profile.
neebz
You have a team member in Karachi? That made me super happy !

Congratulations !

X4
How long did it take to develop it? And how long did you work on that startup?

Best wishes for the New Year!

randall
I've been working on it since October 2011. I went full time on it in 2013.
X4
Thanks for the quick reply =)
aharris88
That is awesome! Sounds like a great start to 2014!
notastartup
how much preceding knowledge did you have of hardware? How did you manage to find a supplier that will make you the hardware that runs your software?
bobdvb
Hi Randall,

If you need any help in Europe then please let me know. I've got a great deal of experience in this area.

Bob