>> Well, it was sort of an interesting evolution
in that I come from an English background.
While I was in school, I
worked with the yearbook.
That kind of got me into university
communications right out of school.
I started working with USC's Office
of University Publications part-time.
And then eventually graduated to a full-time
position there, where I was doing, writing,
editing, Website work and photography,
because I'd picked up photography
as a skill just working with the yearbook.
My minor was animations, so I've had
visual and filmic [phonetic] interests.
And my boss came to me at one point about a year
into my working there and said, "So, you know,
we want to start putting things on YouTube.
We want to be current with what students
want to see, students want to hear.
What would that take?"
And so she gave me the opportunity to
put together a wish list of equipment.
And we started building a
video production pipeline
in our office, which I was spearheading.
And that turned out to be the
most interesting part of my job.
And I got to hire a student assistant,
who was a cinematic art student
who was close to graduating.
And so I worked for a couple years
doing that for university publications.
And at some point, it occurred
to me, as I was trying to figure
out what I wanted my career to be.
I looked a lot of different
options and staying within USC,
within that kind of small office
environment I was working in,
your only options for advancement
are to be come administrative.
And that wasn't really the
work I wanted to be doing.
I wanted to be at the computer doing
the creative work behind the lens.
I wanted to be doing that work.
And I realized that the only people I saw
that were really in charge of their own work
and in charge of their own lives and nonetheless
were still doing the creative work were the
freelancers that we were hiring.
We had a designer named Rick Seminer [assumed
spelling] that would work for us frequently,
and I loved the work that he did
and the life he kind of got to lead.
We had a photographer, Phil
Channing, who did similar work.
And it occurred to me that what Heather [assumed
spelling], my student assistant and I were doing
for the office was something that was going to
become more and more important going forward,
as more and more schools started to
realize that this was a major part
of any communications toolbox, and they
didn't have the resources to do it in-house.
And it seemed like an opportunity
to do something that I loved doing.
To really hone those skills behind the camera.
Creating images.
Creating graphics.
And at the same time, hit the real vein.
Something that was emerging.
An emerging market that needed
more people doing it.
And so, I left the university publications.
Heather [assumed spelling]
graduated, and we started the company.
Started out reaching out
to universities directly.
And we got some good responses.