Getting To Know You: Roy Kimani, CEO, nideo

Getting To Know You’ Roy Kimani

What do you currently do?
I hold the position of CEO at nideo, the only online destination for business videos. Whether you need a place to host and share your videos with a business audience, a private solution for you and your team to share content, or a professional business network that you can be part of, then nideo is for you.

I am responsible for maintaining the strategic vision my co-founder James Hakesley and I set for the company, collaborating with our team and enabling our customers to get the best ROI from their videos.

What is your inspiration in the business?
I am inspired by the work nideo is doing to create the ideal online environment for businesses to connect and communicate through the medium of video. To date, businesses have unfortunately been poorly serviced without their best interests at heart.

The results have been poor video delivery, cluttered platforms littered with irrelevant content and an inability to reach the right audience. By creating a business-only video platform, we are empowering our customers to use video to create the opportunities that will lead to valid connections.

Building lasting relationships will help them continue to grow and develop in order to stay competitive in this digital age.

Who do you admire?
I admire people who have been able to create businesses that address a core need people have, even when they don’t know they have it yet. I particularly look up to Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, who through Twitter has defined a world where information flows faster, more accurately and more openly. A few years ago this was an unfamiliar idea.

Today we cannot imagine being unable to access what we are interested in and what is happening in real time. The thought of someone having been able to create this is inspiring.

Looking back are there things you would have done differently?
Looking back, we could have done a better job in the early days to recognise that delegation of responsibility, based on our strengths, was key to our success.

When starting out, James and I did everything in the business. However, as we grew and brought in new investors, partners and teammates, we failed to share responsibility quickly enough. When we eventually addressed this, as natural control freaks, we experienced withdrawal symptoms.

Today, we not only want to attract the best people to move nideo forward but more importantly we want to give them the opportunity to do so.

What defines your way of doing business?
Our way of doing business is about putting our customers’ needs first. nideo gives businesses the level of control and choice they need to make the most out of their online video presence, a crucial component of any modern company.

The flexibility of what we offer is led by a simple truth: If you can’t offer your customers the choices they want, then they’ll go elsewhere. ‘One size fits all’ approaches simply don’t work in the modern digital marketplace. Businesses want to deal with companies that understand that they have specific requirements and are prepared to be flexible to meet those needs.

It’s vital to show your customers that there’s a face behind the brand and that they’re not just another identity – perfecting this is one of the main challenges that businesses face in the digital age. We work with companies to develop the package that’s going to work best for them, rather than simply what’s going be to easiest for us. That’s the ethos that drives our business, and why nideo is the only online destination for business videos.

What advice would you give to someone starting out?
When starting out it is all about effort. I have never been a fan of excuses and I believe everyone, if motivated, has the opportunity to set up their own business. If you find something that you enjoy doing and you are good at it or can be good at it, explore the possibility of turning it into a business. Start small and work smart.