Success Story - Adam Lisagor

Adam Lisagor and Sandwich Video

In 2009, Adam made what accidentally became the first of his many videos for neat tech products. He’d co-developed an iOS app with a friend, made a video to promote it, and became his own first client. He decided that there was a market for this and began to explore the possibility of creating them full time for the many tech start-ups that were (and are) popping up all over these days.

The problem was that many of these companies did not have the money to pay for a video production company to create a video to either start their crowdfunding campaign or help them market their new products.

So he developed a structure where start-ups can pay him in equity. Share of their company. Percentage of the profits. Whatever the case may be.

First he gathered his friends together. Put together a team of like minded creative people each with a role to play and each with a desire and capability to help reach the goal.

and how did he do?

Watch tv these days and you will, on a nightly basis, probably see a spot he made. You may even see his bearded face appearing in many of them sometimes to help defray the costs of actors, I assume. In any case he has been extremely successful.

People like Adam Lisagor that take risks, can see a bigger picture beyond the money and are able to attract good people and form them into a team are the people who succeed when others fail. Innovative people making good product. People who work together for the success of the team and the success of each individual who is part of it.

This is how he charges his clients (from his website):

The price of a video depends on a few things, like the nature of the creative concept and the resources available to you. Look, it costs real money to make these things well. Maybe more than you think. Do you know that our typical crew size is 20-40 people who are aces in their chosen profession? A lot of people, right? If we’re talking about the pure market value of what we make, our work can typically “cost” $100K or more, but the costs can be structured in a way that our clients aren’t simply handing over bags of cash. There are other ways, you know. Read on.

Our clients fall into three categories:

1. Indie developers and small, bootstrapped startups. These are nearest to our hearts because this is where we came from, but we honestly don’t take many of these clients anymore. We love that they embody the spirit of risk-taking that makes good things happen, and in that spirit, when we work with these clients, we’ll structure payment as part cash and part equity and/or revenue share based on sales. This can be great for clients without a lot of capital, and it can be great for us if the investment pays off. If we love what you’re working on, if we know that it’s one-of-a-kind and it’ll captivate the world, and we like who’s behind it, we’ll work with you as an investment, in exchange for your trust in our taste, a little bit of cash, and a nice amount of upside. These videos cost one dollar sign. $

2. Reasonably well-funded startups. These make up the bulk of our clients. They’ve got the interest of some people with money to invest, they think (know) that their product is going to be a lot bigger than it is now, and they’re happy to put some money into the video to get it right. When we work with these clients, we almost always carve out a little upside for ourselves in the form of equity (when we’re early enough for that to be meaningful) and revenue share (when the product we’re helping sell will translate to real revenue in the short term). And this can help offset some or all of the fees we collect to, you know, pay ourselves. These videos cost two dollar signs. $$

3. Big corporations. We’re doing more and more of these lately. Sometimes for web, sometimes even for TV! They can be fun because there are resources to do things correctly—to make things look amazing, without squeezing the rates of the many talented people who work with us, and because big companies have been known to innovate just as well as smaller, more agile ones. Some of our favorite clients have been enormous brands that respect the creative and know what it takes to make great things and have giant bags of money. These videos cost three dollar signs. $$$

You can read more about his company here:

http://sandwichvideo.com/