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Mediaware Solutions From Concept to Sale

Mediaware Solutions From Concept to Sale. Who am I?. David Keightley Australian-American Born Buffalo NY, grew up in rural USA Cancer treatment planning software Aerospace (GPS, COBE) systems Moved to Australia in 1984 6 months CSIRO Contract 4 years Prime R&D Communications Systems

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Mediaware Solutions From Concept to Sale

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  1. Mediaware Solutions From Concept to Sale

  2. Who am I? • David Keightley Australian-American • Born Buffalo NY, grew up in rural USA • Cancer treatment planning software • Aerospace (GPS, COBE) systems • Moved to Australia in 1984 • 6 months CSIRO Contract • 4 years Prime R&D Communications Systems • 10 years CSIRO Visualisation • 12 years Mediaware (2 of them at GD-AIS) • 4 months Founder ecoSpectral (new company)

  3. What I’ll talk about • Broad Mediaware History • Marketing/Product History • Sales Strategies • Key Issues • Founders • Structure • Vision/Products • VC vs Organic Growth • Lessons Learned

  4. Before we get started Thanks to: • CSIRO for their backing in the early days • Our staff (all of them) • My thanks to John Lilleyman and Ken Tsui • Our board of directors and investors (Epicorp and Brian Bergin) • Sun Microsystems USA for co-marketing funding • Sun Microsystems Australia for early support • Our customers • NICTA

  5. Broad History (pre-Mediaware) • Media processing group at CSIRO in 1995 • Built unique tools to dissect, navigate, search, disassemble and reassemble MPEG streams. • MPEG selected as TV standard • Focus on compressed domain analysis tools • Early success with MPEG-1 • Competition for technology within CSIRO led to pressure to spin-off

  6. Broad History • Business plan and legal groundwork done, then proposal put by founders to CSIRO. • Mediaware Solutions Pty Ltd registered in Jan. 1997 • Partnership work in progress (Sun Microsystems in USA and Australia) • Web based (WebFlix), SDK and desktop based tools defined in business plan

  7. Broad History • Yr 0 - .3 In living room for 1st 3-4 months got angel funding • Yr .3 – 4.5 Moved to small office in Dickson/Started defence work with DSD (cash positive). (3 – 8) (formed informal board) • Yr 4.5 took on BITS incubator funding and moved to Black Mountain. (cash positive but wanted investment for marketing) • Yr 5 hired CEO, board restructure • Yr 6 Keightley moves to USA to staff Mediaware Inc. • Yr 10 Decision to sell, company sold in late 2007 to GDAIS • Yr 10/11 Economy crashes in USA • Yr 11/12 best year in sales for Mediaware (40+) people

  8. Sales/Marketing strategy • Contract to get cash flow and refine IP • Begin replacing IP • Begin product development with staff hired on contract • Branding active with press and web announcements • Build relationship with USA Sun for broadcast and Media markets (years showing at NAB, and more) • Become participant in NIMA/NGA’s MISB • Become partner/competition to contractors • Build broadcast products with defence income • Beat contractors or sell to them

  9. Defence Customers (sample) • Defence Signals Directorate • General Dynamics • SAIC • Lockheed Martin • Raytheon • Northrop Grumman • NGA • General Atomics

  10. Broadcast Customers (sample) • Turner (CNN) • Bloomberg • Pathfire • CBS • ABC • Prime TV • PBC • Various cable companies

  11. From Day 1 • Founders: • Fundamentally good people • Complementary skills (form a basis) • Strong driven individuals • Issues: • Equal power has some issues • No clear leader • Still talking

  12. Structure • Early advisors/mentor can be useful • Board composition/structure was OK, we had no domain experts. • Having good investors critical; we did OK • Investors want success. Give up power to gain • Protect your role and ownership The company may outgrow you • Founders lost power, key decisions were felt to be made before board meetings by investors and CEO.

  13. Vision/Products • Vision must be clear (MWS not clear enough) • Vision must be shared (MWS OK here) • Products must fill a niche, ours did but • Design was weak (clarity of specification, GUI ability) • Too many products • nature of the market? • too many markets? (defence, broadcast, archive) • Only one guy in the customer’s face in early years • Technology: best in the world.

  14. Lessons • Branding: critical. Find a way to get brand recognised in a positive powerful way • Quality: it must work • Support: if it doesn’t work it’s fixed fast • VC vs Organic growth • Control • Earnings expectation • Capability: Solve a real problem. Make someone’s life better and more exciting.

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