Startup interview: Vimeo

August 26, 2008 | Posted in Interviews by Geof Harries

This is the second in a series of two interviews - first was Viewzi - with startups. In this interview, I speak to Blake Whitman, Community Director at Vimeo.

When and why was Vimeo started?

Vimeo was founded by Jakob Lodwick in November of 2004 as a means to create movies using short video clips and music that would be automatically assembled into an edited video that you could watch.

Eventually, Jakob wanted to extend the site to his friends, so with Zach Klein joining him as designer, they created a new version that lost the ability to assemble automatic movies, and added the ability to share videos they had already created. This version of Vimeo started out with just close friends using the site, and gradually added more users until it was launched to the public in spring of 2005.

Vimeo remained a side project for Jakob and Zach’s main company, Connected Ventures (CV), which was focused primarily on the development of CollegeHumor and BustedTees.

When CV sold a controlling share of their company to Barry Diller’s InterActiveCorp, Vimeo came along as a bonus. With IAC now backing Vimeo, the staff was able to expand beyond Jakob and Zach to the current size. This support enabled Vimeo to refine its technology, design, and user interface and grow into the current version everyone uses now.

In what ways has Vimeo changed since its inception?

There have been many faces on the design side of Vimeo (we are currently in the fifth version), but the basic principle has always remained the same; provide a safe and easy way for you to share the videos you make with your friends and family.

As YouTube and other companies came to dominate the video sharing market, Vimeo had the good fortune to learn from the successes and mistakes of those other companies, and really take our time to create and to implement the service video creators were looking for. We have always stuck to our founding principles and we feel that, more than anything, has brought us to the position we are in today.

As the video sharing world exploded, we recognized that many users were coming to Vimeo because we offered the highest quality video out there. We have always believed that online video deserves the highest quality playback possible, which is what led us to be one of the first providers of HD video sharing for the public.

This devotion to high quality stems from the fact that the website was founded by filmmakers and continues to have a staff that includes filmmakers and video creators, so we feel we have a special handle on what users want from Vimeo because we use the site ourselves.

How often do suggestions from the Vimeo community end up being rolled out as new features?

All the time. We rely very heavily on feedback from our users. It’s quite a large part of our development process and it’s also why we’ve devoted a whole sections of our forums to Feature Requests.

Our users are what make Vimeo so special, so it is very important to have a solid understanding of how people are using the site, and what new features they are asking for. Obviously we can’t (nor would we) implement everyone’s suggestions, but without this feedback, Vimeo would not be the site it is today.

What sort of hierarchical management structure does Vimeo follow, if any?

For the most part we’re a fairly level company management wise. Andrew Pile is the head of development for Vimeo and he runs the day to day operations and development schedule. There are a few of us who help manage feature development and product strategy and make sure everything is running smoothly. But we’re a very open team, and major decisions aren’t made by just one person, they are made by the group.

Our team is amazingly passionate about our product, and we all bring valuable insight and ideas to the table which provides for a very creative working environment. Everyone has their specific role, but our developers wear many hats and are constantly learning from each other. Plus, our office is designed so that everyone is essentially within 20 feet of each other, at open desks, which really allows for open communication.

Do your employees work in a central office or are they distributed around the world?

We all work out of our office in New York City except one of our Community Directors who lives in Portland, Oregon.

What methods and tools does Vimeo use for internal communications?

Everyone uses AIM for short-form communication. We also use an IRC chat engine to monitor and push new features and updates. This allows everyone to know exactly what has been added to the site recently, what changes are scheduled to be pushed live, and also provides a useful platform for communication to the team as a whole during the day; not to mention give us a way to share funny videos and hilarious websites we encounter. Which we do. A lot.

How do you motivate staff to stay focused when the future of Vimeo is not certain?

Free cake.

No, in the early days it was all about creating an exciting project. The developers working on Vimeo from the beginning knew that Vimeo was a special idea and that it had amazing potential. When you find people who are passionate about what they are creating, motivation is not something you need to worry about. It not everyday that you can say you built a website that over 600,000 people use.

It also helps that Vimeo has always been a very fun and creative environment to work in. We work hard but we have a lot of fun doing it, and working side by side with a comedy site means there is never a shortage of office antics.

What is the difference between a person who excels at a product-oriented start-up versus a client-services company?

The motivation behind the creation of Vimeo started as a personal one; Jakob was a filmmaker who wanted an easy way to share his videos. A pretty simple idea, but that motivation is what separated a service intended for people and a service intended for business.

We always develop Vimeo with the user in mind, and this motivation has been the key to creating such a successful product. When you know you are creating a product that literally changes people’s lives, its hard not to be excited about that.

As one of the Community Directors, I receive several emails everyday just telling me how much they love Vimeo. I forward those emails out to the team, because that kind of feedback is what makes it all worth it.