Letter from the Editor

"Leave the USB stick. Take your vision."

INT. HBO OFFICE - DAY

Wistia co-founders Chris Savage and Brendan Schwartz can't believe their luck. They're sitting in the offices of HBO who want to exclusively use their relatively young video platform to review dailies. Without batting an eye, HBO offers them $750,000 a year! Considering they used the last few thousand dollars in their bank account to fly out to Hollywood, of course they would say "Yes!" Right? Nope.

This is just one of the inspiring stories behind the success that is Wistia, which recently celebrated its 19th anniversary.

Lights, Camera...Pivot!

Through friends, personal projects, past jobs, and podcasts I've produced over the years, I've been tangentially connected to the film business for quite some time (I can neither confirm nor deny it might even be decades). And now having worked closely with the startup community for nearly four years in my role at HubSpot, I've come to the realization that there are a lot of similarities between "Hollywood" and Silicon Valley.

Both are filled with starry-eyed dreamers pitching ideas to make it big. Both have their version of the proverbial "old boy's club" of executives, influencers, and power-brokers. Both have a dearth of women in any prominent roles of power. And both ignite the imagination.

I've officially donned this issue of the magazine our "Hollywood" issue. Not just because there are at least two stories of founders whose businesses literally started in or crossed paths with Hollywood—Wistia and Strada—but also because this issue has stories about two other platforms connected to video review and/or marketing: Goldcast and StreamWork. The StreamWork story is that of founder and CEO Meredith Bailey, who had past jobs at Warner Bros., YouTube, and the leading review platform used by film and TV shows, Frame.io (three other Frame.io alums are featured in this issue—Michael, Jay Kidd, and yours truly). Her story of growing a startup with a distributed team largely located in the Ukraine, is tailor-made for a Hollywood underdog story of overcoming the odds to succeed.

This month's stories have just about every kind of lesson necessary for startup founders:

• Listening to your gut and intuition
• Knowing when to pivot
• Knowing when you should (and shouldn't) take the "easy" money
• Persevering in the face of unimaginable challenges

But wait, there's more...

Introducing "Dot & Dash"

Last, and certainly not least, this issue marks the launch of a new magazine feature, the comic adventures of "Dot & Dash." Working closely with artist and writer Jay Kidd, we've come up with a series I think you will find thoroughly entertaining, as well as informative. Each satirical installment will include a corresponding essay addressing some aspect of startup and VC life I'm confident will connect with you. You'll find it on the About HubSpot for Startups page of each issue.

Drop us a line and give us your takes, insights, and anything else you'd like to share at letters@scalingsmartermag.com.

So, without further ado, on with the show!

Sincerely, Ron Dawson Executive Editor, Scaling Smarter Magazine