CIO Bulletin

CROOW – Helping customers take video production to the next level through their flagship products CROOW Studio and CROOWpm

It is imperative to understand collaboration in its true sense. Collaboration is an act of co-working to obtain a certain result or outcome. Whether you’re baking your favorite pie or launching a new product, collaboration is essential. As simple as it may sound, collaboration has never been that easy, especially for the creative and video production industries. The ever-changing digital landscape and its umpteen social apps, devices, and platforms have made the scenario even worse. Hence the need for a simplified and single collaboration platform to streamline the creative and video production industries.

This idea of providing a single collaboration platform for streamlining creative and video production collaboratively led to the creation of CROOW, a Software as a Service (SaaS) platform designed to offer on-demand video production services with a streamlined process from scriptwriting and filming to final deliverables and distribution. CROOW is a part of the next generation of software companies that can help businesses overcome challenges and accelerate growth.

David Capece, CEO of CROOW spoke exclusively to CIO Bulletin about how his company is leveraging an innovative platform that streamlines creative collaboration for faster, better, and smarter projects.

Interview Highlights

Q. When and why did CROOW begin? When looking for creative project management software, why should customers choose CROOW?

Prior to CROOW, I first started and built the Inc. 5000 company Sparxoo, a digital agency and video production company. During that growth journey, I recognized the opportunities to increase workflow efficiencies for agencies and video production companies.

It was in 2019 that I, along with a small team, began building out collaboration and other workflow tools and, by early 2021, we had laid the foundation for CROOW. This opened our eyes to the big opportunity to disrupt how video production is done, resulting in the creation of CROOW’s flagship product, CROOW Studio. In February 2022, Sparxoo was sold to another agency, and I moved over to focus on CROOW full-time in April 2022.

CROOW is all about bringing collaboration and efficiency to the creative and video categories. In typical video production, there are gaps between the different talents and roles, impeding the quality of

output and efficiency of work overall. CROOW software streamlines workflows and empowers team collaboration, eliminating time-consuming and inefficient back-and-forth communications.

Q. What are the various services that the company provides?

CROOW has two products in the market: CROOW Studio and CROOWpm.

With CROOW Studio, we have productized video. We have designed the process to be similar to a transparent e-commerce checkout that displays the video packages they are purchasing and the

cost. Clients have the video packages at their disposal. They can make selections from preformatted dynamic customizations like slide-in-text, icons, logos, animation templates, title cards, the rule of thirds, and stock music, or leave the choice to the editors. Users can also use examples and templates of storyboards for their videos.

All of these features save significant time in the pre-production process and empower clients to be more involved in the production throughout the entire process, ensuring that final deliverables are made to their liking. Finally, when the video reaches the editors for post-production, editors can access the same video playbook that was selected in the previous stages. Editors are also equipped with a one-click download option for all the relevant files to quickly access the correct logo, font, selected animations, icons, images, or videos. This accelerates the entire editing process and provides the videos with a sleek and modern touch. The software also reduces the rounds of revisions without compromising the end product.

In 2022, we launched CROOWpm, the first and most advanced video production project management platform. The aspiration of CROOWpm is to be the platform that can help video teams grow 2x as much business without increasing overhead. CROOWpm helps accomplish this while reducing the number of platform licenses required, providing best-in-class automation from storyboarding to director sheets to call sheets, and rolling up all of these into a dashboard of all video projects so that it’s easier to manage productions in real-time with increased collaboration across your team and your clients.

Give us a brief rundown of the company’s background, from its inception to the present.

CROOW has been a journey of iteration, experimentation, and growth pivots. From the beginning, we knew there was the opportunity to increase collaboration and streamline workflows to enable digital and video teams to produce more efficiently and without the burden of low-value tasks. The key ingredient in our journey has been listening to the market. Most recently, we have honed in on the fact that most video production companies leave money on the table for no reason.

Why?

Don’t have good processes or tools uniquely designed for them.
Industry is left out of the SaaS project management industry.
Staffing has never been more expensive, so there is a need to manage FTEs and contractors.
Video is growing by 40% per year and is going to garner more P+L attention.

That leaves a huge unmet need, which is why we launched CROOWpm.

Q. What are the guiding principles by which everyone at CROOW operates?

We are true to our tagline, “Unite & Conquer,” in which we collaborate and unite, and ultimately we go forward with accountability to own our results. As a startup, we have innovation and entrepreneurship in the DNA of our team. We encourage ideas and positivity. That being said, we also realize that it is important to execute and make progress. One thing I learned from a former colleague is the concept of “eating your frogs, “ which comes from Mark Twain. “If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first

thing in the morning. And if it’s your job to eat two frogs, it’s best to eat the biggest one first.”

At CROOW, we believe culture is a critical aspect of the business to get right. With each early team member, we are building the culture that will set us up for success in the long term. As a relatively new company, we moved early to establish our five core values, and we believe this is the start of building a great culture for our organization.

Grow Forward. Lead with a growth mindset, buoyed by the courage to reach beyond our comfort zone and persevering forward to achieve what’s next
Empower Collaboration. Fuse technology, relationships, and processes to bring people and ideas together to create client success
Brighten Humankind. Embrace our diversity with a positive spirit to foster open, authentic connections that inspire meaningful relationships
Own Results. Roll up our sleeves and hold ourselves accountable for outcomes, as we overcome obstacles, execute on the details and deliver exceptional results
Bring Energy. Lift each other up by bringing passion and energy every day, actively working together as one team, and having fun along the way

Q. What makes CROOW’s collaborative video production services unique?

CROOW’s software platform has been incubated through agencies, marketing organizations, video production teams, and the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Beyond the platform’s best-in-class project management features, CROOW really shines with advanced collaboration and business intelligence designed for video production. It helps leaders manage upcoming work, optimize resources, and minimize low-value tasks.

Q. What are CROOW’s future plans?

As an early-stage company, we are implementing a light version of EOS (the entrepreneurial operating system) as we gain traction in the market. We are finding the right balance of structure and agility as we revolutionize the creative and video production industries with a mission to enable better collaboration and eliminate wasted effort. Our flagship product, CROOW Studio is already trusted by the next generation of industry leaders to deliver high-quality video in a cost-effective and timely manner. We are gaining early rave reviews on the CROOWpm product, which is the future of video production project management software.

Our 2023 priority is the adoption of our CROOWpm software nationwide by production teams and early adopters who are expanding their video initiatives and need a platform for scalability. Everything we are doing is to empower agencies, marketers, and video production teams to create and share stories, powered by the efficiency of workflows. We are poised to be the premier collaboration platform for the video community.

About | David Capece

David Capece is the Chief Executive Officer of CROOW. He has over 20 years of strategic marketing and brand experience, including leadership at ESPN and Interbrand New York. David holds an MBA in Marketing and Finance from Wharton Business School and a BA from Johns Hopkins University. He has also served as an Adjunct Marketing Professor at the University of Tampa.