13 Sep 2024

NZ AI-based management tool to be backed by the US global startup network

4:32 pm on 13 September 2024
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Photo: 123RF

An AI-based management tool for the creative sector has been singled out for investment by global pre-seed venture capital firm Techstars.

Shutterspeed was the third New Zealand company to be backed by the US global startup network with a portfolio valued at US$116 billion.

The software tracks time across different stages of production without manual input from users, automating the tracking administrative tasks.

Co-founders Freddie Mckenzie and Henry Collinson said they designed Shutterspeed to help content creators and creative professionals focus on what they do best.

"Production companies need to a better way to understand how time is spent, who is spending it on what, what resources are in use, and what client needs to be billed for it all, so we decided to build Shutterspeed," Mckenzie said.

"Henry and I have deep, specialist industry knowledge in production, and an equally large understanding of the struggles that owners in the space have."

Shutterspeed was fully automatic to streamline workflows and improve pricing strategy for creative professionals and content creators.

"Getting into a program like Techstar, which usually has about a 1 percent acceptance rate, is a great source of external validation for us," he said.

"It's essentially the first step on us taking our product globally, but also having a global validation."

He said the focus was on developing a pitch to global investors, to be presented in a few months.

The company was basing itself in Sydney, which aligned with its amibition to launch to a global audience, backed by about $200,000 of funding provided by Techstars.

Mckenzie said the creative sector can help the development process by booking a free Shutterspeed demo session here.