Being Geek Chic is a blog about one woman navigating the male-dominated industries of production and tech. It's written by Elizabeth Giorgi, Founder, CEO and Director of Mighteor - one of the world's first internet video production companies. Learn more about Mighteor here.
It has been a while since I shared any Mighteor business highlights or updates. The fact is, our little shop has been so crazy and amazing and nutty that it’s hard to keep up with everything.
Big picture highlights:
We are making so many beautiful things. Like this awesome drone reel which features some recent visuals from some shoots over the last few months. It’s just beyond pretty, I can’t believe it’s ours.
Mighteor also recently graduated from the Goldman Sachs 10K Small Businesses Program at Babson College which opened my eyes to all the growth room there still is for this business. Sometimes I literally can not believe how big the opportunities have become. And I have to admit that my most recent sense of awe is just from meeting so many other business owners from the program who have built a business around something magical or wonderful or meaningful.
Let me give you a few examples of those people I admire from my most recent business bootcamp.
Courtney started DiOGi Pet Services to provide better pet care. Awesome. Except it’s so much more than that because you meet her and you realize that the foundation she has set at her business means that she provides pet care that’s better than the care I provide for my own pet. She cares THAT MUCH. She reminds me to just care more.
Or let’s talk about Martina who founded Swift Industries, the most incredible bicycle bag and accessories company you will ever have the pleasure of discovering. You think you are passionate about biking. Then you meet the folks behind Swift and you realize - OH, That’s Passion. Because Martina + Co don’t just make beautiful products, they use those products. And test them. And uses those lessons to make even better products. It’s a reminder to be thoughtful and open to change always.
The truth is that at times, it’s easy to find inspiration outside the business - but I’m also incredibly lucky to have constant inspiration blooming INSIDE the business. Our Minneapolis team continues to grow, which is great because it means our animation depth and skills grow with it. I am consistently shocked by the brains that come up with these moving moments. I think their latest reel shows off exactly what I mean without the need for words:
As we think about the future, I’m reminded always that there are so many people in our past who have helped us get here. And what’s really been interesting is how for the first time ever, I have been able to be a customer of many of some our past clients. I am excited to be working with Slice Realty and Track Ninja - two companies that are completely disrupting industries that are prime for change and evolution. It’s beyond interesting to learn more about their worlds and gain an understanding of what it’s like to be the game changer somewhere else. Needless to say, Mighteor gets that.
Before I get to my ultimate point, I’d be remiss if I didn’t also plug Mighteor’s Second Season of Internet Video Masterclass which is smart and colorful and helpful and even better thanks to lots of Beyonce references. In case I don’t say this enough, I love my team in large part because they put up with my wacky ideas.
With so much happening, it’s easy to forget that we are still so new. In the life span of a business, anything under a decade is practically a baby infant whose still drooling on themselves. It reminds of Pixar’s “Ugly Baby” philosophy, which basically states: “The cost of that becomes clear when you think of how a movie starts out. It’s a baby. It’s like the fetus of a movie star; we all start out ugly. Every one of Pixar’s stories starts out that way. A new thing is hard to define; it’s not attractive, and it requires protection. … Every new idea in any field needs protection. Pixar is set up to protect our director’s ugly baby.Of course you can’t protect the baby forever. At some point, it has to grow up and change into something, because the beast is still there. That’s a positive thing. Because sometimes the ugly baby would rather play in the sandbox forever. It’s a lot like raising a kid. It’s complex and interesting. But most people want to make it simpler than it is.”
Mighteor is still a relatively new baby. We still have our ugly and weird and awkward moments. But when I see things like our new reels and watch the finished work we complete for clients whom I admire - I genuinely find myself convinced that all the work I did to protect this weird baby early on has been worth it.
Pretty soon, we’ll have teeth.
