Startup Corner: Jake Stradling, Stradling Creative Group LLC

Minimally viable product …
Stradling Creative Group is a content company that provides businesses with videos, custom podcasts and live video content toward creating an engaged following. We help businesses tell a compelling story in a webisode series format that ranges from humor to educational content.

Problem solving …
There are three problems we are solving though our content model. The first is bringing production costs down through carefully crafted systems to make the monthly cost of content creation within reach of any size business. Second, we focus very closely on current content trends and what is working for a variety of markets to ensure we are able to tell a story that engages consumers. The rules of content are changing for businesses. People are hit with content throughout their entire day, and understanding how to cut through the noise is something we focus on. Third, through creating consistent content, we are able to measure and adjust content for best results.

Seed money ...
This company has been bootstrapped from the beginning with most of the capital spent on purchasing equipment.

Hurdles overcome ...
Changing the mindset of how businesses spend their advertising budget is probably the biggest challenge. The day of commercials being extremely effective is over and has been for a while. The numbers prove that most people skip over commercials as fast as they can. The new model we are trying to pioneer with businesses is building content brands that viewers engage with on a weekly or daily basis. The concept is to create content that adds value to the viewers so that they continue to watch and keep your business at the top of their mind.

Next phase ...
We believe in being practitioners instead of just talking about what we know. We are launching two YouTube channels to ensure we are on the right track with our storytelling.

Pivot ...
Our pricing model was a big pivot. Instead of selling one-off packages we created a monthly subscription model to spread the cost for businesses. We found that most businesses didn’t want to spend $25,000 on an initial engagement for consistent content but a $1,000 monthly price was appealing.

Food for thought ...   
Our team has spent decades in the marketing and advertising space, and it just doesn’t work the way it used to. Why pay an influencer to talk about your business, when you can become the influencer, and you can just pay yourself? Content is king for a reason.