A pair of brother entrepreneurs is betting that they can help video creators bring their projects to life faster by harnessing AI to streamline the production process.
Michael and Peter Cioni — former execs at Adobe and Netflix, respectively — left those roles to build their new startup, Strada.
They just announced $1.9 million in pre-seed funding from backers including filmmakers Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (“Rabbit Hole,” “This Is Us”); Jason Fotter, co-founder and former CTO of VFX company FuseFX; the principals of production company Ataboy Studios; and an investment group behind Donut Media, Endcrawl and Goldieblox. Panavision CEO Kim Snyder is joining Strada’s advisory board.
“Anyone you ask, AI is going to change everything, but no one knows how,” Michael Cioni said. “Our origin story for Strada is to help creative professionals make better content and higher quality and make it faster. And we believe we can manipulate AI for their benefit.”
Strada is launching as a browser-based app, with plans for a desktop and mobile app. With their platform, the brothers said, users can select tools made by third-party developers to create a customized workflow for all the tasks they currently use programs like Autodesk, Adobe, and Apple’s Final Cut Pro to do.
“We believe you’ll just search the marketplace for pimple remover or hair color changer or wardrobe changer,” Michael Cioni said.
The Cionis also contend that legacy programs like Adobe’s aren’t suited to mobile devices and take too long to learn, given the speed people are creating content these days.
“There’s a lot of friction in making content,” Peter Cioni said. “We want to ease that.”
The brothers are initially targeting social-media content creators, sports and news broadcasters, and corporate and wedding videographers as clients, with plans to move into Hollywood later. They haven’t finalized pricing yet, but they plan to offer a free version and charge users based on consumption. And they’re targeting a second fundraise, a venture capital round, in 2024.
Strada is the brothers’ second startup — they were behind production company Light Iron, which started in 2009 and was sold to Panavision in 2014. At Strada, Michael Cioni has the CEO title while Peter Cioni is CFO.
“We don’t finish each other’s sentences per se; we’re right brain and left brain contributors,” Michael Cioni said. With his background in creative and his brother bringing financial knowledge, he said, “We complement each other very well.”
Scroll down to read slides from their fundraising deck.
Read the full article here