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 –10 years CSIRO Visualisation –12 years Mediaware (2 of them at GD-AIS) –4 months Founder ecoSpectral (new company)

What Ill talk about Broad Mediaware History Marketing/Product History Sales Strategies Key Issues –Founders –Structure –Vision/Products –VC vs Organic Growth –Lessons Learned

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

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

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

Broad History Yr In living room for 1 st 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

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/NGAs MISB Become partner/competition to contractors Build broadcast products with defence income Beat contractors or sell to them

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

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

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

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.

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 customers face in early years Technology: best in the world.

Lessons Branding: critical. Find a way to get brand recognised in a positive powerful way Quality: it must work Support: if it doesnt work its fixed fast VC vs Organic growth –Control –Earnings expectation Capability: Solve a real problem. Make someones life better and more exciting.