(Ep 44) MOMENT -> Building the one-stop shop for the modern creative 📷
Marc Barros | Co-Founder & CEO
Hey friends,
Back again with another edition of The Founder recap - this is Episode 44. If you’re new here, my goal is to give you a quick synopsis of what got me thinking from this week’s episode of The Founder Podcast in 5 minutes or less.
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Mission control:
Learn -> Founder favorite resources
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And who am I?
I’m Kallaway - a future founder trying to get some answers before I jump in the ball pit myself.
Let’s get it.
This Week’s Episode (Ep 44) 📷
Guest -> Marc Barros, Co-Founder & CEO of Moment
Mission -> Moment is on a mission to build the world’s biggest marketplace for creatives
Discount -> Use code “Kallaway” to get 10% off all Moment products
Episode available on -> Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Website
In this episode we talk with Marc about…
👶 The origin story of Moment - from phone lenses to powering creator economy
🚀 Launching Contour and taking on GoPro at 20 years old
🛠️ Building branded products vs building a marketplace - what comes first?
😰 How to improve the remote working environment at your company
💰 Compensation philosophies - the impact on culture and how to get it right
🔨 Brainstorm of the week -> Owning peace and quiet, water conservation and the future of photography
Summary 🔍
What is Moment and how did Marc get started?
Marc is a second-time founder, having previously launched Contour, a venture-backed action camera company that challenged GoPro in the early 2000s.
After a wild battle with GoPro, Marc ultimately left Contour and began thinking about what was next.
He went back to his roots and tried to reflect deeply about the things he enjoyed most. The main one…photography.
In 2014, Marc noticed that the number of mobile phones sold globally was rapidly increasing with a matching decrease in need for high-end DSLR cameras.
While phone camera technology was improving, it wasn’t where it needed to be for prosumers and creators to rely exclusively on their mobile device.
Marc thought, “What if we could create an external lens system for mobile phones that upgraded the mobile photography experience?”
Alas, the Moment Lens was born.
Marc and his founding team launched the Moment Lens system initially on Kickstarter and went on to raise $450K. Here’s a post from Marc in 2014 reflecting on the experience.
After wild success on Kickstarter, Moment began to build a rabid community and following.
Since the launch of Moment Lenses, the company has morphed into a full blown marketplace that sells all the gear you need to create and lessons/trips from your favorite pros.
The marketplace includes both Moment’s branded products, as well as the world’s best gear from 85 other leading brands.
In addition to their marketplace and products, Moment runs an annual mobile film festival (MIFF) and is building a service layer to help creatives monetize their businesses.
💰 Use code “Kallaway” to get 10% off all Moment products.
🚀 Here’s why I’m a fan and excited about Moment 🚀
I love photography and have gone down my fair share of gear wormholes (thanks largely to Peter McKinnon).
Like many newbies, after getting my gear I quickly realized how much goes into capturing professional quality images and videos.
What I really needed, that I pieced together after 100s of hours on YouTube, were lessons from trained pros on how to get the 80/20 out of my gear. I knew I wasn’t going to be a paid professional, but I wanted to be able to take stellar images on trips without fumbling around with settings and stressing about lighting conditions.
For me, I bought my gear on Amazon and tried to learn the basics from different YouTubers online. It was an extremely disconnected and uninspiring experience. I was often more frustrated than excited.
Enter Moment - the one stop shop for creatives.
What I should have done was talk to Moment’s team about what gear was best for me, buy it through them, and then pay for lessons from professionals in their community.
That would not only have saved me time and stress, but also, it would have allowed me to build close relationships with other creatives, something that I was desperately seeking.
But Moment is taking it a step further. In addition to helping beginner creatives find and use new gear, they’re also building a service layer to help power the creator economy.
If you haven’t heard the term, the creator economy refers to a new wave of creator/entrepreneurs that are leveraging online platforms and marketplaces to build sustainable businesses.
These could include things like:
YouTube - video content
Etsy - homemade goods
Skillshare/Udemy - courses
ConvertKit/Mailchimp - email newsletters
Shopify - eComm
Etc.
Since distribution on the internet if effectively free, the unit economics have changed for creators in a way that enables them to focus on their art and create sizable businesses.
Moment is looking to be the service provider for creators and will help them with things like filming courses, managing communities, etc.
It’s an incredibly exciting time to be empowering creators!
Marc’s Startup Manifesto 📜
What’s a Startup Manifesto?
During each episode, I ask all of my founder guests this question:
If you had to write a Startup Manifesto with 5 of the most important key lessons or pitfalls to avoid when starting out, what would they be?
Here’s what Marc had to say:
Focus on an area you’re passionate or a problem you care about.
Figure out the tidal wave you want to ride to solve that problem.
No assholes – make sure that for all the people involved, you’d want to have coffee with them on Sunday morning. Doesn’t matter if it’s an investor or someone on the team, life is too short to deal with assholes.
Focus on customer obsession. Everyone who joins Moment has to do customer support so they deeply understand the customer and their pain points.
Buy from Moment!
What Got Me Thinking From the Episode 🤔
After reflecting on my conversation with Marc, here’s something that really got my wheels spinning:
Founder vs CEO 👍🏽
Marc has a great blog where he shares his transparent thoughts about company building, team structure and employee engagement.
One post he had recently, which we discussed during the interview, compares the difference between being a founder vs CEO and how to make the transition.
It’s a topic that most people overlook when they see someone’s title as Founder & CEO. There’s a reason they have two titles - they are two very different jobs.
The Founder or Co-Founder is responsible for performing magic. They take an idea out of their head and produce a physical or digital product. They’re often visionaries and can see things months or years before the others.
In the early days, it’s okay for the Founder to do things that don’t scale and punt implementing sustainable systems (e.g., payroll, accounting, compensation, hiring, etc.).
It’s often an “all hands on deck” mentality to build the best product possible and iterate until product market fit.
The CEO role is completely different. The CEO is often tasked with focusing on things like team structure, compensation philosophy, building sustainable feedback mechanisms, hiring & firing, etc.
The CEO is looking big picture and often spends less time building the product and more time building the team.
The skills needed are different. The approach needed is different. The mentality needed is different.
Sometimes, Founders aren’t cut out to be CEOs. As much as it is a shot to their ego, it’s sometimes better for the Founder to step aside and let a professional CEO run the company.
Most of the time, CEOs (that weren’t previously founders) aren’t cut out to be Founders. They’re best at sailing the cruise ship, not designing the boat from scratch.
I find the Founder vs CEO topic fascinating and highly encourage you to check out Marc’s original post. He not only highlights the difference between the roles, but also shares his approach for transitioning from one to the other.
💡 Check out Marc’s recommended resources here (favorite books, articles, podcasts and influences)
Wrapping it Up 📕
I hope you found this interesting and inspiring! If so and you want to help support our journey to bring The Founder to millions of people across the world, here’s a couple things that would be really valuable to me and the show:
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Till next time ✌️
Kallaway
Want more? Check out other founders we’ve featured on the show!
— 📖 36. Toucan | Taylor Nieman
— 🛋️ 34. Burrow | Stephen Kuhl
— 🛌 30. Eight Sleep | Matteo Franceschetti
— 🌵 25. The Sill | Eliza Blank
— 🥦 22. Levels | Josh Clemente
— 💍 11. The Clear Cut | Olivia Landau and Kyle Simon
— 🥘 7. Kettle & Fire | Justin Mares
— 🥾 2. Thursday Boots | Connor Wilson
See any mistakes or have feedback? Let me know (kallaway@thefounderpod.com)