Episode 07: Brad Thomas, Co-founder of Evercast.
Today we are joined by Brad Thomas, COO and Co-founder of Evercast, the first cloud-based remote collaboration tool built for creatives by creatives
Episode Notes
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About our Guest:
Brad Thomas: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vociti/
Christina Heller: Welcome to the 2nd Level. I'm Christina Heller.
Marcie Jastrow: and I am Marcie Jastrow.
Christina Heller: Thank you so much for joining us today. Hey, Marcie, how are you doing?
Marcie Jastrow: I'm good. I'm just sitting in my house as I have been for the last 70 days or so.
Christina Heller: Yes. it is day, whatever, in terms of, of quarantine and COVID-19,
Marcie Jastrow: Finally, for the first time, in a long time, last night, I said to my husband kind of really like to go out to dinner. and just that one little thing of going out to dinner, I just cannot do. It is crazy.
Christina Heller: I know that you and I were in the same boat where when this first started, we were really enjoying the time at home. We felt like, especially in the past few years, we had spent so much time outside of the home so much time on the road. And just being able to kind of nest in these homes that we spend all this money to live in felt so good.
But like you, I would say that this week was the first time where I had that twinge of man. Like, wouldn't it be so nice to go on a trip and explore someplace new? I don't know if it's, because we're talking about California opening and everybody's got this pent up demand to actually go do something, but I'm at first two weeks ago, I was like, Oh, I'm out. I'm not even going to go to the market. but now I'm ready to go.
Christina Heller: Yeah. Today's theme is appropriately work from anywhere, we've been lucky because obviously the tools for working remotely for collaborating remotely have gotten so much better. Even this podcast right now is an example of that, we're all in different locations and, and recording through our computers.
So, today we're going to explore that theme. And we're lucky because we have a wonderful guest. We are here with Brad Thomas, who is the COO and co-founder of a company called ever cast. a little background on Brad at the age of 19. He was one of the youngest, Microsoft certified instructors in the world to teach networking security at the Microsoft corporate training school.
And then over the years he went on to co-found. A bunch of companies, including a dating website of voice-controlled navigation company and an international award-winning magazine called creative and now he is here with, Evercast. So, thank you so much for joining us today, Brad, and welcome to the second level.
Brad Thomas: You're very welcome. And if you do need to get out and go to dinner, just come. Yeah. The Phoenix?
Christina Heller: Has it been open. the whole time?
Brad Thomas: Well, it was interesting cause they did not lock down as hard as like California and but now that everything has been lifted people are partying like it’s 1999.
Christina Heller: You got to love those, those Republican States, right? They just give no F's
Brad Thomas: it is a, it is interesting. I will say that for sure.
Christina Heller: I was introduced to ever cast, probably when a lot of people were introduced to ever cast, which was right after COVID-19 hit and we went into quarantine. Why don't you, why don't you give us a little explanation of, of what the services and what makes it unique?
Brad Thomas: It’s basically a video conferencing platform with live streaming technology, where with software only you can stream at, 1080, 60 frames per second, with very, very low latency, which means that if an editor is streaming their avid or their premiere or whatever it is that you're streaming, whatever is leaving their computer.
Everyone else that is alive in an Evercast room is seeing that like 200 milliseconds later. So, it makes the whole experience feel very lifelike, no different than if the director was in the cutting room with the editor. And they are just, cutting the movie together as it has been done so often in the past.
Christina Heller: So ever cast is really a, a post production tool.
Brad Thomas: it started off as primarily a post-production tool, but now it is being used in all stages of production from, the beginning at table reads and visual effects. Previz to streaming live shot cameras directly from the set to postproduction for the visual effects, music composition.
And of course, editorial.
Christina Heller: take us back to the Genesis of ever cast. Why did you decide to do this? And, and what was the impetus.
Brad Thomas: With my previous company, the creative magazine company, we were starting to do a lot of marketing videos and I just happened to be elected as the editor. but the people who were responsible for developing the videos with us, oftentimes they were not at the office and they were remote.
So, I would get an, a cut done, and then I would have to upload, and then I would have to wait for feedback. And then I would get the feedback. And half the time, I would not even understand the feedback because it was all note based. And over time it just started becoming extremely frustrating. And especially, with any type of project that you do, whether it be, creative or creativity or whatever, it is always that like last five or 10%, that always takes 90% of the time.
So that is like one thing to like to get the bulk of the video edited, but then it was those final details that makes something great. That was so difficult to do in this like passive way of just going through files and uploading files and that type of thing I tried Skype and zoom and Google Hangouts and stuff to try to see if I could.
Achieve like a real-time experience with my remote team. So, we could just hop on, get the work and feedback done together and then, call it a day. So those platforms then an offer the type of quality that we needed to do it successfully. And, at that point I kind of decided to make a huge pivot in my, in my career and ended up.
Trying to go after this idea of creating a remote collaboration system where media creators could work together remotely in real time. And what is interesting is that sometimes as an entrepreneur, you are a little bit naive and you kind of go into things.
Christina Heller: Yeah, no kidding.
Brad Thomas: You kind of go into things thinking that, oh my gosh, this is the greatest idea.
And it seems like no one's doing it and all this type of stuff. And then you get into it and, few million dollars later you realize that, wow, this is actually much harder than I thought it was, especially when you're doing it when you're trying to do it all just from software. Right. it took about two years or so for us to basically solve two problems.
The first problem was this high quality. Stream using just software. Right? And then the other problem was the latencies cutting that latency down to like a sub five, 400 milliseconds, area where it really made that, that whole experience feel very lifelike. And I will never forget the day I was in my living room and our developers is like, Hey, Brad, come, come in and check this out.
And, I hopped into an Evercast room and this was version one of every cast. This is completely a different version than we have now. And they started streaming to me and I am like, okay, stop. And they stopped and I am like start and they started, and we did this like back and forth thing and it was so quick.
It literally felt like I was in, in the same room with my dev team, even though some of them were even like in Brazil and in the UK. And I was all the way here and, Scottsdale Arizona. you often hear from entrepreneurs, that success usually comes from one or two defining moments.
And one of the defining moments, the very fortuitous moment that was when. my business partner, Alex, just so happened to live next door to someone by the name of Roger Barton. Roger is a well-known editor in Hollywood, and he is done, all these big summer blockbuster hits like transformers and Godzilla and he was. Just about to go on location to Atlanta, Alex walked over and said, Hey, Roger, a buddy of mine is working on this software. You should check it out because it enables remote collaboration for editorial. And Roger was looking for that particular type of solution, because he did not want to travel to Atlanta because. If you ever talked to Roger, he would tell you that anytime I have ever gone on location, I hardly ever see the director. It is a waste of time. It is a waste of money.
I am much more productive when I am back at home where I can be with my family, where I can work in my own environment. So, he was able to get provisional approval from legendary to give it a try with the director and on a Sunday afternoon.
He had a three-hour session and I will never forget after a session because we knew the session was happening. Right? So, like, this is one of those moments and an entrepreneurs career where it's like it had to work like literally the success that ever casts has had all stems from that one moment, literally that one moment
Christina Heller: Que the Eminem song,
Brad Thomas: Yeah, no, no. It is like Dan, Dan, Dan, Dan, Dan. Exactly. Yeah like two hours of going by three hours going by, and Alex is at his house, I am at my house and we are just like waiting for a phone call or a text or something. And so, suddenly, we get a group text message from Roger and he goes, hey guys, can you please come into my room?
And I go to the computer and before I go live into the overcast room, I am literally sitting there, and my finger is like shaking. Before I click the go up, go live button. And I am thinking to myself I do not think it worked, oh my gosh, like, this is devastating. And I go into the room and I recorded this part of our session.
I hit record on my screen recorder. We go live into the room and he's got this like frown on his face and he goes, guys, And he looks down and he goes, it was a home run and you just in the recording, it's really cool. Cause you just see Alex and I just react of this like sense of just, just stress and pressure, everything.
Just for that one moment, it was like a little victory, and many more victories that we obviously had to have, but that one moment. Ultimately set us up for where we are today. And the cool thing is that because of that experience that Roger had, first, he did not have to go to Atlanta. The director told them, Hey, stay in Santa Monica.
We can do this remotely. And he ended up having. More FaceTime with the director than he normally ever has had in any previous movie because the director they hopped on in the morning, they hopped on in the evening, even while the director was on set, he was able to see what Roger was doing with the cuts in real time, and also make any adjustments to the set if he, if he needed to.
So. Roger was so inspired by the experience that he ultimately took off, editing for. I think it was like nine months and just started introducing us to, all the people in the industry and became, an investor in the company. And ultimately at that point we ended up making him co-founder.
Christina Heller: so, do you still have that recording?
Brad Thomas: I do.
Christina Heller: can we play it on the podcast?
Brad Thomas: yeah, I would have to dig it up. I have to
Christina Heller: It just, the audio, obviously just the audio, but that will be it. That would be a really fun little thing to include if you've got it.
Brad Thomas: absolutely
Christina Heller: That's awesome. So, let us talk about the latency thing. Why is it so key that there would be as close to no latency? When editing with a group.
Brad Thomas: If that latency isn't super low, it just makes the whole real time collaboration of when you're collaborating around media content. It just makes it feel very disconnected. Cause if, it does not match the same experience as if you were to sit in the room with the person working where if you tell them, Hey, stop right there. It's like hit space bar. It stops so that low latency is truly part of like the overall experience. And, a part of the reason why we have had so much success, is because it is just, it just feels like you are in the same room.
Christina Heller: You know, it certainly seems like ever cast is, at the right place, right time. Right now. talk us through what the first, week or two of quarantine and COVID-19 felt like for your company. and, and maybe you personally.
Brad Thomas: Well, was probably. March 8th, I believe where it was like, okay, this many leads came in and the next day it was like double that this many leads came in. And then before we knew it, it was like by the 10th or 11th, it just was a fire hose
Marcie Jastrow: What is interesting as we were seeing this pent-up demand happening over a period of four or five weeks. And so, I would get an email. Every day, every time someone would look at the website or every time something was happening on the website, if someone wanted to see the video or wanted to speak to sales, I was seeing it and we literally went from like 10, a day to 15, a day to one morning I woke up and there was 50 to a hundred But then what happened was it was having to sift through all the leads and getting them up and running
Brad Thomas: we still had a small team at the time. Right. So, it was pretty much me and one other person, Tyrrell where we were doing the onboarding. we had, two people by the name of, of, Robert and, Todd who were doing, a lot of the inbound, lead. We want to call it led,
Marcie Jastrow: Qualifying.
Brad Thomas: Qualifying you will say. Yeah. Right. And then, we had, Emily who was doing all the accounting and making sure that the accounts were getting set up and all that type of stuff. we just so happened to bring in Tyrell's brother by the name of Garrett, who luckily he was able to learn fast because for literally and a half to four weeks straight, every day we were onboarding 20, 30 people. And it just, it was crazy. And I got to say, kudos to our team. we literally pulled off what I would like to consider something almost an impossible feat and kudos to our dev team because, we've had a lot of users leading up to COVID, right, but we've never truly have had the opportunity to pressure test the platform at the level of scale that we experienced in such a short period of time.
And so, every tech founder, worst nightmare is that you are, you know, you are getting incremental growth and suddenly you get the hockey stick that everyone talks about looks for. And the platform literally just dies. the fact that that, that, that it happened is a true Testament to the type of people and the developers, and the, the management of those developers that we have, on our team. everyone on the Evercast team played an incredible role in making that scale possible. we were not perfect. We had a few issues here and there, but it could have been a lot, lot worse.
Christina Heller: Well, and it bears mentioning that Marcy, you have become involved, formally with the company. And now that is a somewhat recent development
Marcie Jastrow: So, Roger, the same guy that, started with Brad and Alex called me, we had been old friends. Roger was my first inbound client at a company called Hollywood digital. And he was calling about a small little film called Titanic that he needed dailies done on. And so, through the years I have watched Roger grow and become this, big time editor. And Roger called me out of the blue and said, Hey, I hear you might be available. I want to talk to you about something. he told me the story that Brad just told you guys, told me about the impact ever cast really made on his life and his family life.
And, as you know, Christina, we lived four years of globetrotting the world, missing out on family events. And I was really looking for something that could change the lifestyle that I was living. and so, when I saw ever cast and I heard about ever cast, it just seemed like a good fit. I knew I did not want to work for a corporation. And I knew I did not want a job. Like that was the last thing that I wanted.
Christina Heller: When you say job, you mean like nine to five kind of.
Marcie Jastrow: yeah, I did not want, I did not want the concept of me working where I had to justify my existence every single day. I wanted to understand how do you do a startup? How do you raise the money for a startup? this was me being involved with the actual growth of it and what better job for me? I felt like I could make a difference and I could close deals and quickly understand the platform and get it going.
Christina Heller: Yeah.
Marcie Jastrow: What made Evercast really great. Was that the part of post-production that I love the most that I had the most success with early on in my career were editors. I understood editors. I understood what they needed. I understood how they felt. I understood that most editors while technical, they're not exactly a true technical beast. So, they're created creative beast.
Christina Heller: And specialized,
Marcie Jastrow: Exactly. Exactly. And, and then it was also, I didn't have to, I didn't need an office. I didn't have to go to work.
They were in Phoenix; I was in Los Angeles. It was a true concept of remote collaboration. And there were so many moments that it just felt right. That I just dived in and I said, okay, let's do it
Christina Heller: and, what timing, I also have always felt the pull towards remote work. It always seemed like the promise of technology. for the longest time up until recently, really, it felt like if you wanted to engage meaningfully in commerce, you needed to be in one of the major cities. And, yet the technology was there to, to change that. and so not everybody wants to live in a city it's very expensive. Maybe their family doesn't live in anywhere close to the city where all the commerce is taking place
Brad Thomas: That was one of the other main reasons why. Alex. And I set out to create this platform was because there are such amazing creators all around the world and not all of them want to live in New York. Not all of them want to live in LA or these major like city hubs that you're referring to.
Right. And so, a platform like this truly connects talent from everywhere. So, like even a commercial that only has a limited budget. They could technically still hire a very expensive program editor. And that editor could just do a weekend and that they don't have to pay for travel and per diems or anything like that.
Right. And still get a high quality, a finalized product without any traveling or any like relocating or anything like that. So that was another huge reason why the platform was even created at begin with.
Christina Heller: And so, while on the one hand, that might create a little, nervousness for industry professionals who are killing it in one of the major ones. Hubs. I think it also presents this opportunity where now you get to ask yourself, do I really want to be in one of these major hubs or would I like to be looking at some mountains, while I do my creative work.
Marcie Jastrow: I think at the end of the day, what I've seen as this migration of really successful people, having had enough living in Los Angeles , all wanting to have some quality of life I think whatever casts brings to the table, which is so important is the ability to be anywhere
Brad Thomas: One of the things that we were always trying to present to potential clients was that this is not just about when the director or the producer is out of LA, right?
There's somewhere else. No, no, no. This is a lifestyle change because typical traffic in LA, a lot of people are driving 50 minutes to an hour each way into the studio or a cutting room or office or wherever it is, that is two hours. Of either creativity that is completely wasted, or heaven forbid more time with your family. We were getting like these isolated cases where people were kind of having that light bulb moment. And when COVID hit, it forced people to try a platform like ever cast and have the light bulb go off and realize that, wow, this is not just for a quarantine purpose.
This is a lifestyle changer for me. And directors and producers have reached out to us over the last 90 days saying that even after all this COVID stuff is over, I just can't go back to my normal way of life. Like this has changed me completely.
Marcie Jastrow: And, I think that work from homework from anywhere. that I think is the new mantra. And I think that if anything, COVID has made people more aware, especially when you're sequestered with your family for that long, that these are your people.
In most cases, these are the people you want to be around.
Christina Heller: If not, you might need to do some soul searching.
Marcie Jastrow: Exactly. every time I would travel, there would be this re-entry into my normal everyday life, am a mother of three and a wife. This is what you work for every day. It's like what? We said, you work to buy a home. Well, you're never in the fricking home. So, what is the point.
Christina Heller: I think even after things, quote, unquote, go back to normal, it will provide not just the ability to work and enjoy your home and family. But I think that what, what we will be able to see the shift of is people getting to both do the work they are passionate about and live the life that fits them, whatever that means.
Brad Thomas: yeah, and I would like to add what normal are we trying to get back to? The new normal needs to be something different because the current normal that we were on was not sustainable for a hundred different reasons. And that is for a completely different podcast,
Christina Heller: No I'm into, I'm glad I'm down to go into it, Brad, because I have brought this up with a number of my friends that have been, lamenting the economic downturn and, and I'm not trying to, I'm not trying to, underestimate the. Level of fear and insecurity and, disruption that this has caused for so many, who, have seen their businesses evaporate overnight. I definitely don't want to discredit that very real, problem and issue that so many are experiencing that being said, we were also. listening to people like Gretta, Thornburg, and others who were saying like, look, we are all doing too much all the time. And, and we're seeing it in our oceans.
We're seeing it in our air. Like how can we possibly constrain our lives a bit? So that all 8 billion of us are not constantly contributing to these, to the erosion of the planet. And then all of a sudden, for two to three months, the entire world stood still.
Brad Thomas: Yeah, it is not just the erosion of the planet. It is also the erosion of us. And I will never forget those many, many years ago, a neighbor of mine who passed away, he. I will never forget. I was walking my dogs one day and he was probably like 86, 87 at the time. And we would always chat every time he would walk his dog and he walked up to me one day and he goes I really feel bad for like all of you that are your age, because it's just amazing how you don't have time anymore, just to even think.
Just to even reflect because everything is just so on the go. And so, you know, I think one of the things that Cova did is that it forced a pause and I think it forced a lot of people to like look inward almost like a warning shot from the universe or nature or whatever it is, right. It was like a warning shot saying, Hey, you have this incredible gift of creativity and compassion and all these amazing things that humans have.
Do not forget about that because that is what makes you stats. What makes you special? That is what makes us special. Right. what I would love to see, come from this is that. we somehow figure out how to live a more balanced life, or it is not this constant go, go go thing. And that, maybe people can connect more with their families and connect more with friends and try to find, a work life balance. I think that is probably the keyword of the, of the years’ work, life balance.
Christina Heller: For me, I had not been preparing myself meals anymore. I was eating on the go constantly. And now I prepare myself three meals a day. I am like looking up recipes. Marcy, have you noticed any, lifestyle changes like that since going into quarantine?
Marcie Jastrow: I have all three kids home, so, that has been interesting to have all three and Sophie's, re-entry back into, A family dynamic I cook three times a day pretty much. And I get, I get to a point where I'm like, okay, I'm done cooking. I also found that, I really liked the idea of not having to go to a grocery store. And I love the fact that I can order online and do that. I have been spending time planting. I built an entire new, Vegetable garden and then I said to Richard, you thought I was losing it. I want to chicken. I want to make my,
Christina Heller: Yeah, an urban farmer.
Marcie Jastrow: Richard looked at me like I was nuts, but ultimately, I think that at the end of the day I feel like I did have a pause. And I think that that is important to notice. And, and look it was scary. It is scary. but I'm that person that thinks, well, there's a reason that's happening.
Brad Thomas: oftentimes if you look back in history, change rarely happens unless it's forced upon us. we're a reactive species. Right. So I think, There's a lot of truth behind that statement because sometimes you have to be forced into very uncomfortable situations to realize something's wrong and you have to, you have to change, right?
Christina Heller: So hopefully everyone can take that kind of, make lemonade out of lemons approach, and see how they can turn what might be a negative thing into something that benefits them or [00:24:00] benefits their country.
Marcie Jastrow: Yeah.
Brad Thomas: Yep.
Christina Heller: Well, like I said so happy for you. I wish you all the best and continued success. And, and if you are interested in learning more about overcast, please go to our website, and check out the show notes. also, what's a, what is a good contact info. If somebody wants to learn more.
Brad Thomas: That's a good question, Marcy.
Marcie Jastrow: You go to our website. So www.evercast.us. or you can just email us, marcie@everecast.us
Christina Heller: Awesome. Well, and thank you so much for taking time, wherever you are in your life and in your world to listen to us today. I want to thank Mike for our amazing editor, Abby Tate, our amazing producer. And, and Marcie, who else? Who am I forgetting?
Marcie Jastrow: you, you are amazing. That is the best host I can possibly imagine and a great partner to do this. So, and just start out, just a shout out to Valerie who, had some personal issues. So, she is going to, take a break and hopefully she will come back and help us keep this thing going.
Christina Heller: We love you, Valerie.
Marcie Jastrow: yeah, we love you bow.
We are just really blessed that this podcast has taken off the way that it has and people, we have this fun little following and we thank all of you are fans.
Brad Thomas: And I like to say, to your editor, Mike, Hey Mike, if you need an Evercast room, I know someone who can hook you up.
Christina Heller: Awesome. All right, everyone. That is, it for this week tune in next time and stay safe and healthy out there.
Marcie Jastrow: Thank you.