A local start-up is partnering with companies on local, national and international levels to provide video services for their clients.
Field59, a Madison-based start-up, was founded in June 2014, Derek Gebler, CEO and founder of Field59, said.
Gebler and Catherine Garcia, VP of marketing for Field59, both got their start at Broadcast Interactive Media, where they built their video platform. But they decided to start Field59 when they realized they could expand the platform they developed, Gebler said.
“There’s a great opportunity to grow our product within live streaming and on-demand,” Gebler said. “We had the opportunity to acquire the video products from another company, and take them and grow them.”
Field59 is a software and service provider for companies, Gebler said. Field59 operates off of a cloud-based video management platform that allows clients to readily share and distribute video as well as manage large amounts of data. The start-up works frequently with media broadcasts and corporate training sessions performed over video, Gebler said.
Field59 has done some testing with local media outlets, such as Channel 3000 and radio station WHA. But many of Field59’s media customers are spread across the U.S. The software and service provider even works with one international company based out of Trinidad and Tobago, Gebler said.
There are several other companies in the Madison area that offer similar platforms, but Field59 prides itself on doing its best to provide high quality services in technology, customer service and professional experience, according to the Field59 website.
Field59 has been working with local organizations designed to encourage the education and connection of entrepreneurs, Garcia said. They worked with the Madison chapters of One Million Cups and Startup Grind, which are both organizations dedicated to promoting entrepreneurship.
“Collaborating with [Startup Grind and One Million Cups] has been a really great learning experience and it has been good to give back to the community that way. Their events highlight other start-ups and entrepreneurs,” Garcia said. “They aren’t paid events but they are really rewarding to participate in.”
Startup Grind brings in venture capitalists, CEOs and other speakers to its events, and it then becomes Field59’s job to distribute the resulting video not just to Madison, but to a national and international audience, Gebler said.
Recently, Field59 began working with local biotech company Exact Sciences. Field59 built Exact Sciences a login system, a live chat and a live broadcast system. The focus has been providing Exact Sciences with a corporate communications system, Gebler said.
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While Field59 has worked primarily with media broadcasting companies so far, the company is looking to expand its organization in other directions. Partnering with companies like Exact Sciences will allow the company to develop its platform further, Gebler said.
“It’s taking our system that we have built and finding new purposes for it,” Gebler said. “We wanted to take our system and apply it to new venues, and we want to continue building these new partnerships.”
Currently, the Field59 offices are based out of 100state, a location that continues to fuel the company’s entrepreneurial ideals, Gebler said.
While working as an entrepreneur can sometimes be “scary,” it has given Field59 the freedom to explore various directions, Garcia said.
This freedom is both the best and worst part of being an entrepreneur, Gebler said.
“The best thing is that you get to make the rules up as you go. It’s been great, because if there’s something that we really want to do, we do it,” Gebler said. “It’s a little weird operating without a net, but it has been very liberating.”
Correction: This article previously referred to “Startup Grind” as “Start-Up Grind.” We regret the error.
