May 23, 2018
Oren Boiman, CEO and Co-Founder of Magisto, Talks Entrepreneurship
Oren Boiman is the CEO and co-founder of Magisto, the world’s most popular video storytelling platform for consumers and businesses with 90 million users. An award-winning computer vision and machine learning expert, Dr. Boiman has 17 patents for his work developing Magisto’s artificial intelligence “storyengine”. His breakthrough technology automatically identifies and crafts emotionally impactful stories from photos and video.
Prior to Magisto, Boiman worked as algorithm group lead at Applied Materials (AMAT). Boiman received a Ph.D. in Mathematics from the Weizmann Institute of Science and a B.Sc. and a M.Sc. in Computer Science and Mathematics from Tel Aviv University. He has also authored academic publications on computer vision, which are now considered the gold standard in the field and are cited internationally.
Follow Oren on Twitter.
What did you do before you founded Magisto? Have you always been in mobile?
Before Magisto, I got my PhD in Video Vision and Artificial Intelligence. The central premise and findings of my PhD became the core to how we first thought about building Magisto.
How did you come up with the idea of Magisto?
My intent in researching and crafting a PhD thesis on video vision, artificial intelligence was by design to explore the ways that machines could be used to break the boundaries of how video is used to both capture and convey rich information.
Our brains are biochemically hard wired to consume and analyze information in narrative form. Restated stories are the most efficient way for the human brain to receive and process complex information. Think of all the information that is contained in a simple dinner conversation from the content of the story to the storyteller’s facial expressions, intonation, choice of words etc.
As a medium, produced video comes closest to the richness of those types of interpersonal interactions. Ironically as an unproduced medium, those nuances are often lost — they don’t translate in the digital record. There are a zillion applications of my work from interpersonal communication to marketing, but broadly I wanted to unlock the power of video storytelling.
Ironically at the time I was formatting my thoughts and deep in the research process, my wife and I had a baby, and we set out to use off the shelf software to create a video narrative to share with friends and family. It took the two of us — both engineers — more than two weeks to get a simple two minute video that conveyed the perspective and joy we felt around the birth of our child and then lightning struck. At that moment, the need and the potential for new paradigm of produced video communication was as clear as day. I imagined, and still do, a world where anyone can create a video story that communicates what and how they want to convey through the power of personal perspective and the ease of email.
Fast-forward to 2017 and we have 90M registered users and tens of thousands of businesses in 120 countries using Magisto to do just that. We’ve made tremendous strides but in my opinion, we have just hit the tip of the iceberg.
What are your favorite tools to use on a daily basis?
Ha — it might be easier to list the ones I don’t use. Of course I use Magisto on a daily basis, but beyond that I use a lot of data analytics tools, Mode and Mixpanel being two of them. I also use a host of communication tools from obvious ones like text message to Zoom video conferencing, to LinkedIn for networking and Clearslide for multi media presentations.
Do you have some tips for up and coming entrepreneurs? Any tips on how they can execute their goals successfully?
I’m not sure it counts as a tip, but rather a required characteristic — relentless conviction and courage. Being an entrepreneur is like other faith-based professions — actors, musicians, politicians, religious leaders. You can’t dabble at being an entrepreneur, you either are or you’re not and assessing your personality, your risk tolerance and your own conviction is the first step.
History is told by the victors and as such, the tech world has a new found chic geek glitter in recent years that’s not totally accurate. It blinds people to realities of day-to-day life of an entrepreneur. There is a very real financial risk and a very real cost to your personal life that you have to assess as an individual. I am just wired the way I am wired and for me there was no choice, it was almost a state of being — I’m an entrepreneur for better or for worse — that’s me. I would encourage young entrepreneurs to ask the same of themselves.
What are your 3 top favorite apps?
Forgive me — Magisto is my baby so that goes without saying. It’s like asking a film critic what their favorite movie is. I spend so much time studying and evaluating apps in such a granular way; I’m like an app dictionary,
That said, three that jump to mind:
- Waze — for directions
- Evernote — to sort and organize the 20,000 thoughts I have a day
- Flipboard — as a source of relevant content discovery
What are your favorite blogs, websites, and podcasts to follow?
A few of the thought leaders I follow are:
- Brian Halligan, CEO of Hubspot, he speaks from experience and has a great way of crystalizing and expressing his perspective.
- I’m a huge Steve Blank fan — he almost “productized” building companies
- David Skok from Matrix Partners has a fantastic blog
- Thinkgrowth.org is another great site
Thank you for a great interview, Oren! If you want to learn more about Oren and Magisto visit Magisto.com.
