We recently sat down with David Wadler, CEO of Twistage, one of the newest software companies Lexmark has acquired. Twistage joined Lexmark’sPerceptive Software in March of 2013, so we wanted to get an update on how the integration is going and what the companies have been working on in the last few months. Here are the highlights:
Give us a description of Twistage and what the company offers.Wadler: My business partners and I started Twistage in 2004 with the idea that there would be growing demand for online video. We had a few false starts, perhaps most interestingly a business to consumer user-generated video portal that we built prior to YouTube’s launch. Ultimately, however, we settled on building a cloud-based video management system for businesses. Over the past few years, the product has evolved and we began managing more kinds of rich media like audio and image files. Our focus has been on empowering businesses to manage and distribute rich media across a broad swath of use cases (marketing, training, premium content monetization, corporate communications, and more). We do this by eliminating complexity, turning video management into a simply Application Program Interface (API) call or button click.
What makes Twistage stand out in the marketplace?
Wadler: Whereas many of the companies in the rich media space, particularly online video platforms (OVPs), focus on template-driven solutions, our approach was to build a robust API. This allows for very tight integration, allowing our customers to dictate the user experience and drive more return on their existing investments in hardware and software infrastructure. Since ours has long been a technical solution, it was a challenge to package our product from a marketing perspective, but the market ultimately responded: We were one of the few OVP start-ups to reach and maintain profitability. In addition, Frost & Sullivan named Twistage “the OVP’s market hot company to watch” and called us “the Porsche of OVP vendors” in their 2013 report on online video platforms.
Why Lexmark – what makes Twistage and Lexmark a good fit?
Wadler: Lexmark has quickly evolved into a company that manages unstructured data, whether it’s being printed on a piece of paper, scanned into an MFP, or exists only in a digital format. The Twistage acquisition will further round out this offering, bringing rich media into the fold. In addition to extending the content management capabilities of Lexmark – and of course, Perceptive Software – Twistage will also be delivering some of its Cloud DNA. We’re excited to provide our underlying Cloud Framework to Lexmark and are looking forward to working together to deliver products and solutions on top of this framework.
What are you most excited about looking forward as we continue to build our business together?
Wadler: In a word, scale. And for me, it’s scale everywhere. Our engineering group got much bigger. We have a global sales and marketing footprint. We’ve long wanted to build a big business and now we have one. The next challenge for us is to make sure that we continue to execute efficiently so that everyone – our customers most importantly – can reap the benefits.
Any other interesting info you’d like to share?
Wadler: I actually have a fun anecdote that, in some ways, speaks to the fit of the acquisition. When we were first introduced to the company, I was asked to give a demo. Rather than spend time walking through our user interface or website, I showed the audience something that they see practically every day – Innovate. For those who are visiting the blog from outside Lexmark, Innovate is our internal social network. Unbeknownst to practically everyone in the room or connected remotely, Twistage had been powering the video for Lexmark’s social network since its inception. (And we continue to be the video engine for Innovate.) Even though we were newly acquired, we had been working together for quite some time!
For more information on Twistage and how it can help your business, click here.
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