Entrepreneur and digital media executive Luke Beatty is the new chairman and CEO at Brandfolder.
The Denver-based startup helps companies manage logos, images, videos and other resources in a secure, permissions-based way, with analytics. (Naturally, Brandfolder has its own brandfolder.) This can serve as a handy resource for reporters, but also as a tool for salespeople to find all the assets needed for presentations, or for the company to quickly tweak their branding for different promotions.
Beatty, meanwhile, is known for founding the startup Associated Content, selling it to Yahoo (where he worked as vice president and general manager), leading the Techstars program in Boulder and then serving as president of media brands at AOL, where he oversaw TechCrunch and other properties.
Beatty left AOL at the end of last year. He told me he’s been relaxing and spending time with his family for the past six months, but he’s now ready to take on a new role.
He emphasized that he’s taking the job at the invitation of Brandfolder’s outgoing CEO Steve Baker, who will become the company’s president — the idea is that Baker can focus on sales while Beatty can “do more operational stuff.” Beatty added that both investors and employees still see Baker as “the backbone of the company.”
Beatty was actually one of the initial investors at Brandfolder, and he said that when it comes to managing brand assets, “every company now is starting to see that it needs to have more than email and Dropbox.”
“I think that next to a business’ customer list and a business’ IP, their brand often has the most value in the company,” he said.
Beatty added that after raising only $3 million in funding from angel investors, Brandfolder decided against chasing a big venture round, but he won’t rule it out in the future. (“Never say never.”) Still, it may not be necessary, as the company is already cash-flow positive.
Looking ahead, Beatty said one of the big challenges will be creating more features for Brandfolder’s different customer groups while ensuring that the product is something that can be adopted “quickly, easily and efficiently — so you don’t need weeks of training.”