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Ian Smith
Co-Founder & CPO of Studiobox & Eclipse, Video Creator
Ian Smith
Co-Founder & CPO of Studiobox & Eclipse | 20 years as a Video Creator
About
Ian Smith is the co-founder and chief product officer of Studiobox and Eclipse, a platform that merges cinema-level equipment with remote collaboration and capture software. With over 18 years of professional experience in the video production industry, he is a passionate and versatile creator, director, producer, cinematographer, and editor.1
Studiobox brings the on-set experience online, empowering video creators to unleash their creativity and vision. Ian leverages his skills and knowledge in audio and video technology as well as film production, industrial video, web series, documentaries, commercials, and corporate videos to create, work with teams, and deliver a useful, reliable, and high-quality product.1
Prior to co-founding Studiobox, Ian was the owner of Avian Productions, where he worked as a director, producer, cinematographer, editor, and colorist on various projects including music videos, web series, documentaries, commercials, and corporate videos.1 He also held positions as a director of photography for Leopard USA on the HGTV series House Hunters International, and as a director and director of photography for Ora TV on shows like Larry King Now and Politicking.1
Experience
- Co-Founder / CPO at Studiobox (September 2020 - Present)1
- Owner at Avian Productions (March 2008 - February 2023)1
- Director of Photography at Leopard USA (April 2016 - December 2019)1
- Director at Ora TV (March 2017 - November 2019)1
- Director of Photography at Ora TV (June 2012 - March 2017)1
- Field Producer / Videographer at Maxim Magazine (September 2008 - July 2010)1
Highlights
I do believe that when an idea enters the head, its time has come to enter the world. But an idea is not an invention of the mind, it’s a discovery of the spirit; it exists beyond us. To my younger self, this meant I needed to move quickly and build fast with no time to spare because someone else might build it first. My older self knows to be patient; even though an idea is ready for the world, the world may not be ready for that idea. If it makes a splash you may end up bailing on the first wave and riding one of its ripples. It’s a reminder that things are flowing in a rhythm; find the flow and be ready for the next wave.
I recently came across a document I made in 2007 while working at LiveVideo.com, an early Youtube/Twitch hybrid. With the help of Matthew Manson and Jason Uribe we designed a web series content model. The idea was to create a hub/anchor show that was long-form and then create short-form ancillary videos to support it. These shorts would be cast into the waters of the internet and used as hooks on the end of fishing lines, drawing viewers into the main show.
In 2008, Mo Darwiche convinced me to quit my job to create our own scripted comedy series using this content model. It wasn’t originally intended for scripted shows, but we spent the next year figuring it out, resulting in an 8 episode hub/anchor series called, Acting School Academy [https://lnkd.in/ggZurnia], and 90 short-form videos to seed the internet and draw people into the show. We pulled in nearly 2M views on YouTube, which was a decent number for a scripted series at the time and it showed the model could work.
Flash forward 15 years and you find me working with my wife, Serena Smith, creating her live talk show, On the Table [https://lnkd.in/g7hQyGzM]. To my amazement, I find myself building it using the same content model, which has now become the de facto standard. Her hour-long interviews are broken up into short-form videos and used to seed the internet, luring people into the main series. The majority of our 11K subscribers have come from the shorts, and as a result we've seen the viewership numbers steadily trickle up, reaching 130K views this week. And just like in 2008, if a short-form video does well we see a direct correlation with views on the hub/anchor video.
It’s all a reminder that things are flowing in a rhythm; find the flow and be ready for the next wave. 🌊 🏄♂️
My wife Serena Smith is a very talented interviewer. She and I met at Larry King Now, where she was Larry's producer, writing his questions and guiding him through his interviews. Larry conducted 50,000 interviews in his lifetime, so not a bad person to learn the art form from. She then went on to sit in the interviewer seat herself, though still behind the scenes, at MasterClass where she interviewed cultural leaders in food, music, and politics. As her husband I saw the work she put in, the late nights spent researching, the desire to get it right, and the way she made genuine connections with each master she interviewed. I also saw her frustration with having to ask questions designed to elicit a specific response, rather than having a freeform conversation, because, as she says, it's in those conversations where you find the gray area, and we all need to be reminded of the gray. Well she's done her 10,000 hours and feeling inspired by our late boss, she'll be putting her skills to use as an on-screen interviewer in a LIVE video talk show format, and I could not be more proud of her. Her guests are Nick and Amy of Qveen Herby, formerly Karmin. We're doing it live from a restaurant in Venice Beach. I'm directing the show. Studiobox is sponsoring it. It's my job not to muck it up 🤞. Max Ostrove will be running the stream through our latest Studiobox software, Eclipse. Eclipse is video production software that speeds up the editing process by letting you and your team edit while you shoot. He'll be using it during the interview to mark moments that then get saved and turned into clips. There’s no need to hand off footage to an editor, we’ll have shorts and highlight reels ready to share instantly. If you make podcasts or any long form content and you're interested in trying out our software, let me know.
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- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
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Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Mesh takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Mesh encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Mesh work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Mesh is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
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Mesh makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Mesh's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
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Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
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