5 minutes with… Choovie Co-Founders, Sonya Stephen and Shane Thatcher.
Plush armchairs, mega screens and buttery popcorn bring back nostalgic memories of a time when going to the cinema was a weekly occurrence. Soaring ticket prices have made trips to the cinema a rare occasion for many of us, until now.
Choovie is on a mission to make every night, movie night. The B2B digital advertising and ticketing platform connects brands and loyalty programs with its national network of cinemas. For moviegoers, Choovie’s B2C platform offers dynamic ticket pricing so you can find empty cinema seats for cheaper, so you can see more movies, more often.
2020 goals for Choovie
SS: For Choovie to be known as the cinema ticketing movie marketplace within the loyalty and rewards space.
ST: We want to become more than an interesting start-up, we want to be a significant business in our space.
How do you usually start your day?
SS: Exercise — yoga, swimming or running.
ST: A bit of meditation & a session at the skatepark.
How do you find inspiration?
SS: Through the people I surround myself with — I am lucky enough to have a lot of amazing people working really hard to do amazing things.
ST: The world’s a pretty cool place and we are damn lucky to be here, that’s enough for me.
Last eureka moment?
SS: (same as Shane’s answer)
ST: A session with an industry insider opened our eyes to something we’d been staring for a long time but couldn’t see.
Something you do every day
SS: Get down on the ground and play with our youngest child.
ST: Have a cold shower.
I cannot recommend highly enough..
SS: Taking a break — whether it’s leaving early / arriving late, having a day off or a week off. As someone famous once said “Doing nothing often leads to the very best of something”.
ST: Being grateful for what you have.
How to stay motivated
SS: Keeping my eye on the end goal — making sure everything I do gets me one step closer.
ST: Break up big tasks into little ones so you can tick achievements off regularly, and maintain outside passions.
Best thing that happened during the Skalata program
SS: Being surrounded by people who are invested both emotionally and financially in your business and doing whatever possible to make sure you achieve what you set out to. This definitely includes the other incredible start-ups in our cohort — many of which I now consider good friends.
ST: Having heaps of smart people care about our success and want to help us to achieve it.
Biggest learning from the Skalata program
SS: Get it out of your head and onto paper.
ST: How to step back and critically look at your business from all possible angles.
Advice for anyone looking to join the Skalata program?
SS: Milk the program for everything it has to offer. The value of Skalata’s investment is set by you — that is, the more you put in, the more you get out.
ST: Come in with the most open mind you can muster, and get a head start on the deliverables…
What are you reading at the moment?
SS: The Dry — Jane Harper
ST: Why We Sleep — Matthew Walker 😊
Choovie is a Skalata Ventures portfolio company. For more information please visit chooviegroup.com.
