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Mar 15, 2017 · 21m · top-founders

EP 599: Taivaco Helps Brands FInd Old Offline Content to Digitize and Annotate With $50K Raised, CEO Michael Kaplan

Michael Kaplan · 11m spoken Nathan Latka · 7m spoken
0:00 / 0:00

gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions

In this episode of 'The Top,' host Nathan Latka interviews Taivaco CEO Michael Kaplan about how his startup leverages AI transcription and facial recognition to digitize, index, and monetize legacy analog video archives.

How this conversation actually went

Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Nathan holds 39.8% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 4.5 Guest teaching 2.0 Guest disagreement 2.3 Nathan pushing back 4.5
05100:0010:0020:001:25–6:24 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 Introducing Michael Kaplan and Taivaco's Public Debut Nathan introduces the company and immediately pushes to clarify whether Taivaco is a pure software SaaS play or a tech-enabled professional services firm. Michael explains their internal software use and positioning in digital asset management.6:24–10:47 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Company Launch, Early Capital, and Funding Roadmap Nathan drills down on early revenue figures, funding amounts, and client deal sizes, asking directly why enterprise conversations have not converted to signed revenue yet. Michael defends their timeline by explaining that version 1.0 software is still under development.10:47–17:10 · Nathan as informed peer 7/10 Deep Video Content Search and Business Model Debate Nathan directly challenges Michael's monetization strategy, arguing that pricing by user seats rather than stored/indexed content volume leaves significant value on the table. Michael pushes back, arguing seat pricing lowers customer friction, leading to a direct debate over ARPU scaling.17:12–20:30 · Nathan as informed peer 2/10 FreshBooks Sponsor Break and Entrepreneurial Experience Following a FreshBooks sponsor read, Nathan runs through the standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions in a cordial and routine closing segment.1:25–6:24 · Guest teaching 2/10 Introducing Michael Kaplan and Taivaco's Public Debut Nathan introduces the company and immediately pushes to clarify whether Taivaco is a pure software SaaS play or a tech-enabled professional services firm. Michael explains their internal software use and positioning in digital asset management.6:24–10:47 · Guest teaching 2/10 Company Launch, Early Capital, and Funding Roadmap Nathan drills down on early revenue figures, funding amounts, and client deal sizes, asking directly why enterprise conversations have not converted to signed revenue yet. Michael defends their timeline by explaining that version 1.0 software is still under development.10:47–17:10 · Guest teaching 3/10 Deep Video Content Search and Business Model Debate Nathan directly challenges Michael's monetization strategy, arguing that pricing by user seats rather than stored/indexed content volume leaves significant value on the table. Michael pushes back, arguing seat pricing lowers customer friction, leading to a direct debate over ARPU scaling.17:12–20:30 · Guest teaching 1/10 FreshBooks Sponsor Break and Entrepreneurial Experience Following a FreshBooks sponsor read, Nathan runs through the standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions in a cordial and routine closing segment.1:25–6:24 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Introducing Michael Kaplan and Taivaco's Public Debut Nathan introduces the company and immediately pushes to clarify whether Taivaco is a pure software SaaS play or a tech-enabled professional services firm. Michael explains their internal software use and positioning in digital asset management.6:24–10:47 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Company Launch, Early Capital, and Funding Roadmap Nathan drills down on early revenue figures, funding amounts, and client deal sizes, asking directly why enterprise conversations have not converted to signed revenue yet. Michael defends their timeline by explaining that version 1.0 software is still under development.10:47–17:10 · Guest disagreement 4/10 Deep Video Content Search and Business Model Debate Nathan directly challenges Michael's monetization strategy, arguing that pricing by user seats rather than stored/indexed content volume leaves significant value on the table. Michael pushes back, arguing seat pricing lowers customer friction, leading to a direct debate over ARPU scaling.17:12–20:30 · Guest disagreement 1/10 FreshBooks Sponsor Break and Entrepreneurial Experience Following a FreshBooks sponsor read, Nathan runs through the standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions in a cordial and routine closing segment.1:25–6:24 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 Introducing Michael Kaplan and Taivaco's Public Debut Nathan introduces the company and immediately pushes to clarify whether Taivaco is a pure software SaaS play or a tech-enabled professional services firm. Michael explains their internal software use and positioning in digital asset management.6:24–10:47 · Nathan pushing back 5/10 Company Launch, Early Capital, and Funding Roadmap Nathan drills down on early revenue figures, funding amounts, and client deal sizes, asking directly why enterprise conversations have not converted to signed revenue yet. Michael defends their timeline by explaining that version 1.0 software is still under development.10:47–17:10 · Nathan pushing back 8/10 Deep Video Content Search and Business Model Debate Nathan directly challenges Michael's monetization strategy, arguing that pricing by user seats rather than stored/indexed content volume leaves significant value on the table. Michael pushes back, arguing seat pricing lowers customer friction, leading to a direct debate over ARPU scaling.17:12–20:30 · Nathan pushing back 1/10 FreshBooks Sponsor Break and Entrepreneurial Experience Following a FreshBooks sponsor read, Nathan runs through the standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions in a cordial and routine closing segment.

speaking balance: gold is Nathan, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)

0:00 · Nathan 72.3% · guest 27.7%0:00 · Nathan 72.3% · guest 27.7%3:00 · Nathan 16.4% · guest 83.6%3:00 · Nathan 16.4% · guest 83.6%6:00 · Nathan 18.7% · guest 81.3%6:00 · Nathan 18.7% · guest 81.3%9:00 · Nathan 26% · guest 74%9:00 · Nathan 26% · guest 74%12:00 · Nathan 28.1% · guest 71.9%12:00 · Nathan 28.1% · guest 71.9%15:00 · Nathan 49.9% · guest 50.1%15:00 · Nathan 49.9% · guest 50.1%18:00 · Nathan 53.6% · guest 46.4%18:00 · Nathan 53.6% · guest 46.4%21:00 · Nathan 100% · guest 0%21:00 · Nathan 100% · guest 0%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 14:57 Michael rejects Nathan's Google indexing comparison

Michael firmly dismisses Nathan's critique of his pricing structure, insisting that broad enterprise adoption matters far more than indexing volume fees.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 15:08 Nathan challenges the fundamental economics of the pricing model

Nathan counters Michael's logic by arguing that indexing more content delivers higher enterprise value, refusing to accept seat-only licensing for massive video archives.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 11:48 Michael explains deep video annotation vs simple transcription

Michael corrects Nathan's assumption that Taivaco simply runs speech-to-text transcripts, outlining their complex visual tagging and computer vision search capability.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 13:58 Nathan lectures on SaaS ARPU expansion metrics

Nathan demonstrates SaaS metric expertise by challenging Michael to explain how Taivaco expands average revenue per user without tying pricing to consumption or content volume.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Introducing Michael Kaplan and Taivaco's Public Debut 4224 Nathan introduces the company and immediately pushes to clarify whether Taivaco is a pure software SaaS play or a tech-enabled professional services firm. Michael explains their internal software use and positioning in digital asset management.
Company Launch, Early Capital, and Funding Roadmap 5225 Nathan drills down on early revenue figures, funding amounts, and client deal sizes, asking directly why enterprise conversations have not converted to signed revenue yet. Michael defends their timeline by explaining that version 1.0 software is still under development.
Deep Video Content Search and Business Model Debate 7348 Nathan directly challenges Michael's monetization strategy, arguing that pricing by user seats rather than stored/indexed content volume leaves significant value on the table. Michael pushes back, arguing seat pricing lowers customer friction, leading to a direct debate over ARPU scaling.
FreshBooks Sponsor Break and Entrepreneurial Experience 2111 Following a FreshBooks sponsor read, Nathan runs through the standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions in a cordial and routine closing segment.

Statements from this episode (9)

Assertion Not checkable as stated
Kaplan: US organizations hold 100M+ hours of analog media worth $20B+
“Between corporations and associations and government agencies, there is now over one hundred million hours of archived analog media. And by conservative estimates, that quantity of media has been valued at over twenty billion dollars.”
Michael Kaplan Mar 15, 2017 ▶ 4:24
Disclosure
Kaplan: Taivaco has generated under $10K in revenue to date
“We've done under 10 grand right now in revenue.”
Michael Kaplan Mar 15, 2017 ▶ 6:49
Disclosure
Michael Kaplan personally self-funded Taivaco with around $20,000
“I put in around 20 K of my own.”
Michael Kaplan Mar 15, 2017 ▶ 7:20
Disclosure
Kaplan: Taivaco raised under $50K from its first investor
“And then we just closed on our first, it's a very small amount. It's under 50 K with our first investor.”
Michael Kaplan Mar 15, 2017 ▶ 7:24
Disclosure
Taivaco plans to raise a $2 million funding round mid-2017
“But really long-term plan is to do another round probably mid 17 for around two million.”
Michael Kaplan Mar 15, 2017 ▶ 7:41
Prediction Held up
Kaplan: Digital asset management market will reach $7.5B by 2024
“Right now that 20 15 dam market was around 1.4 billion. It's expected to grow up to about seven and a half billion by 2024.”
Michael Kaplan Mar 15, 2017 ▶ 7:59
Disclosure
Taivaco outsources most media digitization at near-zero net margin
“We'll do it at a very minimal cost. Some of it we do in house. Most of it we work with outside vendors. So it's a very minimal net for us.”
Michael Kaplan Mar 15, 2017 ▶ 11:01
Opinion
Kaplan: Traditional DAM software pushes all annotation burden onto clients
“And here's the problem with the DAM software, is that that puts all of the effort, all of the heavy lifting falls on the shoulders of the client.”
Michael Kaplan Mar 15, 2017 ▶ 11:13
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Kaplan: Taivaco indexes visual actions to enable Google-like video search
“We'll actually make it look like, almost like you're using Google. You'll be able to type in key search words like man walking dog. It will take you exactly to that point in the video.”
Michael Kaplan Mar 15, 2017 ▶ 12:33
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