Quiet on the set with Alex LoVerde ’11
How did two restless BC grads go from consulting and investment banking to the 2019 Forbes "30 Under 30" Hollywood & Entertainment list? SyncOnSet CEO and BC alum Alex LoVerde ’11 traces the stunning growth of a breakthrough software program that’s revolutionizing TV and film production. Oh, and did we mention the Emmy?
Prep
When Alex LoVerde and Jeff Impey were roommates in college, Hollywood was the last thing on their minds. Sure, they liked movies, but they were psych and finance majors with their sights set on Wall Street.
Then one day while crossing the BC quad, they spotted a 10-foot $10,000 check hanging from a tree. Addressed to the winner of the Shea Center venture competition, the check was big enough to persuade them to sign up.
Another team ended up taking the prize, but the competition stirred a passion for entrepreneurship in the two students that also prepped their path to Hollywood.
Fast forward to November 2011: Alex and Jeff had graduated and started their careers in New York, one in management consulting, the other in investment banking. But they kept in touch, calling each other often to brainstorm startup ideas.
“We thought maybe in two years when we had more experience we’d use one of our ideas to get into business school,” Alex said.
Six months after graduating, Jeff called him with an idea. “He was watching a movie and saw some sunglasses on an actor and thought, wouldn’t it be cool if you could go to a website and find out what brand they were.”
That kicked off a search for data sources and their first meeting with costume designer. “We asked her where all the information is,” Alex said. “She pulled out a three-ring binder to show us how film sets work.”
After seeing that multimillion-dollar film productions were still being managed on paper, they had an epiphany. “We realized this wasn’t the most efficient way to keep track of everything,” Alex said. “So we wanted to develop a tool that would make it easier.”
Shoot
Things got rolling from there. That initial meeting with a costume designer led to new contacts, more meetings, and consistently enthusiastic feedback.
“The fact that they were taking so much time to talk to us was a sign this was a huge problem,” said Alex.
Two of the people they met early in their research were costume supervisors on HBO’s Boardwalk Empire and Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street.
“They shared with us how they organize the process starting with the script—how they break it down, think about costumes, props, etc. So we learned the nuance of the workflow,” Alex said.
And because they were working with staff from two of the biggest productions in TV and film at the time, Alex and Jeff were getting regular advice from two of the most respected industry veterans.
“We iterated constantly,” Alex said, “and people really liked what we were doing.”
The R&D process spanned the first five months of 2012. By July, they had a beta version of their software idea. By September, they had secured funding from startup accelerator TechStars, which helped them further refine and bring on two additional partners, fellow BC grads Brett Beauliue-Jones and Dan Stefanis. (Both have since left to pursue advanced degrees.) Soon after, Alex took the reins as CEO and Jeff led strategy and operations.
Wrap
Today, SyncOnSet is deployed on 25,000 films and TV shows worldwide, including 70% of TV productions ranging from Game of Thrones to Modern Family. That makes it the leading entertainment technology company for digitizing physical production and managing creative content. In 2016, the founders became the youngest winners ever of a Primetime Emmy for Engineering Achievement. And this year, they made the Forbes 30 Under 30 Hollywood & Entertainment list, with the likes of Rachel Brosnahan, Timothee Chalamet and one of Alex’s favorite directors, Aneesh Chaganty.
Asked how it feels to be in such company, Alex said, “I would describe it as very, very humbling. They’re some of my favorite actors and filmmakers working today.”
He used “humbling” to describe the Emmy win as well, “because the other winners were companies like Netflix, Sony, and Avid, industry titans and huge brands that we aspire to be like.”
Beyond industry recognition, Alex says the Emmy has helped with recruiting. “You get a physical statue, and everybody in the world knows what it means.”
The Emmy sits on a shelf in SyncOnSet’s Boston office, where it has helped them grow to 27 people and raise $8 million in venture capital. The Boston office houses their engineering team while the leadership, sales, customer support, and product development teams reside in Los Angeles. By year end, they hope to hit 30 employees and cash flow breakeven.
Meanwhile, Alex says customer support and engineering are still growing, and they’re still iterating. “Every time we get a new customer and modernize part of their process, they ask us to do more,” says Alex.
“Now it’s really become this end-to-end workflow software,” he adds.
Rewind
Considering the original scope of the problem, the partners aren’t surprised at their growth. What surprised them, Alex says, “was to find such a huge untapped market. It’s interesting, because Hollywood is very cutting edge when it comes to technology like AR and VR, which are entertainment driven.
“But behind the camera,” he adds, “it was still the 1950s.”
Alex says the lesson in their journey for startup-hungry graduates is to go get a job.
“Get the best job you can, work as hard as you can, and do that until you feel like you have an idea for a company that you need to do,” he said. “Get professional experience and pay off some student loans. You don’t have to go out and start Facebook while you’re in college.”