START-UP NATION/VideoCrisp:Abhinav Chugh spotted a gap in the market for companies wishing to add professional quality video content to their websites at an affordable price, writes PAMELA NEWENHAM
ABHINAV CHUGH already had one successful business under his belt when he spotted a gap in the market for a second, a cloud-based video editing system.
Aimed primarily at marketing professionals, start-ups and small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), VideoCrispallows users to create new videos and edit existing ones without the need for complex and expensive video editing software.
Users can embed templates, music, bullet points, photographs to make videos quickly and easily from any computer or mobile device.
Chugh came up with the idea while working at waybiz.com, a business he established while undertaking an MBA at the UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School in 2010.
He saw a need for building trust between global businesses who wanted to connect with each other, but were afraid to do so because of a lack of credibility. As a result, he created waybiz.com, which helps buyers find trusted vendors locally and globally through recommendations and referrals. It currently features more than 40,000 client recommendations from over 70,000 businesses in 110 countries.
“At the time the site had thousands of recommendations and was doing very well but I was constantly looking to improve it and build more trust among businesses. I thought videos would be a good way to do so and started doing video recommendations, which proved very popular.”
Waybiz client companies then started approaching Chugh to do marketing videos for them, which he found costly and time consuming.
“The video editing was tricky, you needed technical expertise to do a professional video. We had to get production companies to make them for us and it cost big bucks. I knew there it to be an easier solution.”
At the same time, Chugh saw that videos were becoming a very powerful marketing tool.
“Research showed a video on a website was 53 times more likely to appear on Google’s first page of search results, than a website with no video content. Yet, people were having to rely heavily on editors, production companies, animators and the need for technical expertise to make videos.”
Chugh, along with his co-founder Nidhi Kapoor, thus decided to set up VideoCrisp, which has a library of music, fonts, animations, backgrounds and graphics so users can select what they want and create their own video with just a few clicks. The tool also includes an editing technique that facilitates sophisticated editing on mobile.
The company has raised €100,000 in early-stage funding, including €50,000 from Enterprise Irelands Competitive Start Fund. It is based at the Nova Innovation and Technology Transfer Centre at University College Dublin.
The entrepreneur doesn’t see VideoCrisp as a competitor to iMovie or Windows Movie Maker as his video editing system can be accessed from anywhere, and doesn’t require technical expertise or editing experience.
“iMovie and Windows Movie Maker are great for home users but not for businesses as they want professional looking videos. That’s where we come in.”
Chugh, who has extensive experience in tech start-ups, IT and online product development, having previously worked with large multinationals such as O2 Ireland, T-Mobile UK, Bell Canada and LVMH Japan, says users will be able to opt for pay-as-you go pricing or pay a monthly subscription fee.
“Smaller companies may only make one video in a six-month period so the pay-as-you-go option would be better for them. Larger companies might do hundreds of videos though, so a subscription would work out cheaper for them.”
What next for the business? “We are currently in talks with some very big marketing and design companies who have shown enormous interest in our tool, as they could offer it to their clients. We want to branch out internationally and ultimately have a presence in London and Silicon Valley.”
