Out of Stealth Mode. Is the world ready? Are we ready?

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It was Startup Week Twin Cities 2014. Camera Slice, Inc came out of stealth mode. We pitched at Beta.mn and MinneDemo two excellent Minnesota startup events.

MinneDemo is a great place to present mostly to tech nerds and the greater MN tech community. Our feedback was mixed.

We heard people say “I saw fire created before me”, “I have no idea what I just witnessed but my God that was cool”, “I could see stadiums using that”.

Before MinneDemo, we had a localized demo app that connected devices in real-time. It proved that synchronization could be possible but it was missing a few pieces. Here’s what we developed when we came out of stealth mode:

• A centralized app called Maestro (master — moderator/curator)
• Demo apps (slave) that responded to commands of the master
• Control over the ISO, Contrast, Torch, White Balance, Exposure, Gain
• Frame control per second
• An audible countdown timer
• Ping a single device which caused that single device to flash its torch (light)
• Interactive way to curate lots of photos to build a sequence
• Publish a sequence of images to a custom viewer on a website
• Publish to Twitter/web

We sped everything up. The process to collect, curate and publish content was incredibly fast. We even built a demo app for Windows phone.

What did we do next? After a few months talking with customers and listening to the market we made a pivot. Eric Ries lays it out clearly in the lean startup model. Keep iterating.

We rebranded to Slice Engine.

We cleaned up our brand to speak clearer to our market. We are the engine that powers your mobile app via the Slice Engine SDK. An SDK allows us to scale and integrate with other services (Slack model). Not everyone can use our technology, we’re focusing on brands and companies that ship mobile apps.

Also during this time we filed for a full patent which helped with our conversations with Kodak, Samsung, Spotify, Pandora and few other international brands. That patent is now public (16 month process) and we’re continuing to build upon that strategy.

I believe the future of user generated content is not only going to get better its where we are going to see the world first hand. Companies like Periscope and Meerkat are proving that everyone’s broadcast can be important. However, its a vast sea of noise — a massive pipe of content. I’m a believer that the ownership of that content belongs with the brand directly through its own app. Why go to all the trouble of scraping content or pushing your loyal users/fans/customers away from your brand. Community is built with a foundation that is stable and true, not fragmented.

Follow me on Twitter/DM anytime. To learn more about Slice Engine visit our website and download the SDK. The future of UGC (User Generated Content) is here.