A Q&A with Pivotshare founder Adam Mosam. The Costa Mesa, California–based company was founded in late 2011 and announced in August that it had raised $1 million in Series A funding from TownsgateMedia.
SUB: Please describe Pivotshare, and the value proposition you bring to the content business.
Mosam: We want Pivotshare to be the best way to make money from your digital media online. We make it very easy to setup pay-per-view or subscription access to your content.
SUB: Who are your target users?
Mosam: Pivotshare works well for many different types of users. We’re a great solution for entertainers like comedians, filmmakers and performers. Their audiences are used to paying for their content and are willing to continue that behavior online. It’s also a good fit for any type of instructional content whether it be fitness, food or sports-related.
On the other hand, there are many organizations and associations that have expressed interest in using our platform as well. One area is for conference and event footage. There’s a lot of value in their content libraries and they’ve been waiting for the right way to bring it to market.
SUB: Who do you consider to be your competition?
Mosam: Online video platforms like Brightcove and free video sites like YouTube.
SUB: What differentiates Pivotshare from the competition?
Mosam: Online video platforms can be prohibitively expensive and can also be very complicated to setup and use. A user can be up and running on Pivotshare’s platform for free in a matter of minutes.
Free video sites are okay if your content regularly receives an extremely high amount of views. However, there’s an entire world of high-quality lower-volume content that customers are willing to pay for. There was no great solution out there for these people before Pivotshare.
SUB: When was the company founded and what were the first steps you took in establishing it?
Mosam: We officially launched in December, and were bootstrapping until June when we received our funding from Townsgate Media.
SUB: How did you come up with the name? What is the story behind it?
Mosam: We believe that there’s a better way to monetize content than the way it’s being done by content creators and publishers today. We think the industry is shifting. We’re inviting them to pivot to a new way of doing things, a better way. We’re also helping them to share their media and make some money along the way. Pivot+share.
SUB: What have the most significant obstacles been so far to building the company?
Mosam: Things are going well so far, ask us again next year.
SUB: You recently raised $1 million in Series A funding. Why was this a good time to raise this round, and how do you plan to use the new funds?
Mosam: This was a good time for us to raise the money because we’re expanding our scope of operations and needed to hire more employees to achieve our goals. We plan to invest time and resources into making sure our platform fulfills the needs of our target user base. We’re also hiring.
SUB: Do you plan to raise additional funding in the near future?
Mosam: We will look into the possibility of raising funds again next year.
SUB: How does the company generate revenue or plan to generate revenue?
Mosam: Pivotshare participates in a revenue share with our users. When they sell content, we take a percentage fee. We win together.
SUB: What are your goals for Pivotshare over the next year or so?
Mosam: Staff up, build a great platform and help our users grow their businesses.
Pivotshare – www.pivotshare.com
