There are tons of raw video footage out there: Videos taken on vacation or school trips, videos of friends and family, videos taken to show off new restaurants and boutiques. And every day there’s more. But the problem of editing that footage is a problem. For as many of us as there are who like to shoot video, very few of us know how to edit it.
That’s a problem Videopixie is trying to solve, by creating a marketplace devoted entirely to connecting users who have video with those who can edit it. By doing so, it’s providing a way for anyone to have beautiful videos created out of raw footage from professional video editors and animators.
Two years ago, the team behind Videopixie launched Sellstage, which was a platform for marketers to distribute their product videos online. The idea was to store and stream videos that could be easily embedded on product websites online.
It was an okay idea, but what the team found was that many sellers needed help with the actual creation of their videos and not help with their distribution. In particular, there was a bottleneck in the video-editing process. Sellstage’s customers would frequently have video footage that they had shot, but they would have no editing experience.
They could hire an editor, or even a full-service video crew to create videos for them, but that was expensive. What they really needed was an on-demand video editor who would charge a small fee based on the amount of time involved in piecing the video together.
And so, Videopixie was born.
The service works like this: Users log in and upload all their raw video footage, then make it available for editors to have a go at it. They can run a contest, with editors vying for the business by putting together a quick teaser trailer using the footage provided. Or they can submit footage and have editors bid on a project, and choose them based on ratings and price. There are also fixed-price options for smaller projects.
In any case, businesses can use the service to cost-effectively get product videos, customer testimonials, or explainer videos created. And consumers can use it, too, for weddings, vacations, and the like.
Videopixie was founded by Tom Saffell and Thomas Escourrou, who were part of the Y Combinator Summer 2011 class with Sellstage. Funding comes from YC and its Start Fund.