Rob Sewell, CEO of SmartFrame Technologies, talks to us about turning a niche web service into a global image standard
What’s your background and what brought you here?
I had a tough start in life, coming from a broken home, which led me to have to live on my own at a very young age and support myself. Not having family support, or the opportunity to go to university or choose a career path, I became very entrepreneurial and was constantly looking for opportunities to get ahead.
Such a mindset meant that I got involved in a wide variety of industries. When I first left school, I worked in a local motorbike shop to ensure I could pay my rent. By the time I was 19, I was DJing professionally and running my own monthly nightclub. In my early 20s, I owned a personal training and wellness holiday business for high-net-worth individuals, which took me all around the world, and towards the end of my 20s, I co-founded a well-being membership subscription business.
In my 30s, I dived deeper into the corporate world, setting up a telecommunications company, before working as the Business Development Director of a Portuguese manufacturing business. Finally, in my late 30s, I was approached by SmartFrame Founder and CPO Pat Krupa, who was looking for someone with a commercial mind and the drive to help take his image security and presentation business to market (which was then called Pixelrights).
It was a big risk – there was no salary available at that time – but I really believed in the technology and instinctively knew it had enormous potential, and that I could help build it into something exceptional. And so, after an equitable agreement, I resigned from an established global business and joined the company. This brought me back into the start-up world once more, which is what led me to where I am today: CEO of SmartFrame Technologies and on a mission to change the way images are published and viewed online.
What gets you out of bed in the morning?
First and foremost, my family. Providing for my children and giving them a better upbringing than I had is absolutely the biggest thing that gets me out of bed in the morning. Living a life of passion and purpose and supporting others are also essential to me.
I have this hardwired entrepreneurial spirit inside me that drives me to achieve something exceptional and make a difference. I want to leave a legacy that inspires others in similar circumstances that I found myself in when I was younger. I want them to see that if I can do it, they can do it too. My ultimate goal in life is to set up a fund and mentor program for entrepreneurs from disadvantaged backgrounds and help make their dreams and visions become a reality too.
What are the biggest challenges and rewards that come with your role at SmartFrame?
As the CEO of a company that’s transforming an existing model, challenging the status quo, and creating a new marketplace, there come a number of challenges. It’s not an easy job.
First, there’s the mindset change. People are used to sticking with what they know, so educating them on a new approach and inspiring them to adopt it – no matter how much it makes sense – takes time and a lot of resilience. There are also legacy agreements and systems to contend with, which present additional hurdles.
But while changing behavior is a significant challenge, it can also bring huge rewards. Each time we overcome these obstacles, we contribute to a positive change on a global scale, creating a new economy and new value from image distribution for all concerned.
What do you love about the start-up world and why?
Throughout my life, I’ve become accustomed to challenges, and this has given me a lot of drive and ambition. I guess now I just really love the challenge of the start-up world and taking a new product to market.
I love the passion, the energy, the vibrancy, and the relationships you build, while simultaneously solving a real problem and creating a better marketplace.
Why SmartFrame?
I was fascinated by the fact we were still publishing images on the internet in the same file format as we were in 1992, which is when the first image was published online. The world has moved on. The internet and technology have evolved rapidly. Everyone has a high-end camera in their pocket and there are now over 1.5 trillion images taken each year. 3 billion images are shared online every day, and it’s estimated that more than 2.5 billion of these are stolen, which is staggering.
Many people wrongly assume they can use online images as they wish – what’s the harm in stealing someone’s image? But if you scratch beneath the surface, there are a number of significant problems caused by image theft.
For instance, if you make a living out of licensing photography and your images are stolen hundreds, if not thousands, of times with no payment, this represents a huge loss of income. This creates a real issue for those in the creative industries who deserve to make a better living from their work.
Another issue is the online counterfeit goods market, with fraudsters using stolen brand product imagery to sell their illicit goods. The counterfeit goods industry is worth trillions of dollars a year and can seriously damage a brand’s bottom line and reputation. Not only that, but it can expose unwitting consumers to harmful products and helps fund organized crime.
There’s also the growing problem of misinformation and disinformation online. How can you trust what you see online when images are so easily stolen and manipulated? On the personal end of the spectrum, you have identity theft, the creation of fake profiles, and catfishing to stolen images of children being used in unsavory ways.
The only way to address these problems is by tackling them head-on with a change to the image file format – and SmartFrame’s image-streaming technology offers that solution. Just look back at the music and film industries, which had similar problems in the early days of the internet of piracy and huge value leakage until they moved away from downloadable file formats.
Since adopting streaming technology to regain rights control and retain the value from their assets, both of those industries are now prospering. YouTube and Spotify, for example, are both now turning over billions of dollars a year. I’ve long seen a real opportunity for SmartFrame to do the same with images.
What’s changed since you have been in charge?
When I joined, there were just three employees working evenings and weekends to provide an online service for photographers. The product’s USP of image protection and presentation meant that it was being targeted toward a very narrow market. I encouraged the original founders to adopt the bigger vision for SmartFrame of redefining the online image standard and addressing all the issues described above, believing that changing the way images are published, shared, and viewed online is the opportunity we should really be addressing. Of course, a bigger vision requires greater investment – and a more substantial team.
Seven years on, and £12m of funding later, we now have a talented team of 39 people across four countries, and our plan is to grow to 48 people this year. We have advanced the technology to support images up to 100MP in resolution, with multi-level zoom and a slew of other engaging features. We have also developed our own proprietary analytics system to allow users to track and control the distribution of their images online, and, most recently we launched our contextual in-image advertising system.
Imagine what this could mean for photographers, image agencies, sports brands, or anyone who distributes content: full visibility and control over those assets and a new way of monetizing them through in-image advertising.
And that’s where we are today. We’ve gone from a niche website service to a new online image distribution model that’s set to revolutionize the internet, with a growing number of global partners adopting our technology and a global image-streaming network.
What’s the key to success?
I believe the key to success, no matter your background or circumstances, is grit. You’ve got to fully commit and give it your all. There are going to be challenges ahead and it’s not always going to be easy, but you’ve got to rise up to the tough times and never give up.
You’ve got to love the challenge, be agile, constantly learning, adapting, and evolving, and be really clear on your objectives. You have to be passionate about what you’re doing and you need to build and inspire an exceptional team around you that believes in your vision.
How important is it to have a clear vision? And why?
Clear vision is absolutely paramount. To get to where you want to go, you must have a clear destination in mind – and you have to be able to communicate that effectively to your team.
Everyone has to buy into the same vision and have a sense of purpose and a clear end goal in mind. If you don’t have a clear vision in the leadership role, then how can you expect your team to be inspired and to take the business in the right direction?
It’s also worth remembering that getting there doesn’t always happen linearly, which brings me to another essential ingredient: adaptability.
Before you reach your destination, you’re going to have to go down dead ends, take detours, and constantly change course to overcome obstacles. If you can adapt, and most important of all, learn as you go, you’ll stand a much higher chance of achieving success.
How important is it to set goals for yourself?
It’s extremely important to set yourself achievable goals. Having an overall vision is one thing but, to quote Jeff Bezos: “all overnight success takes about 10 years”. So it’s important to break your vision down into manageable chunks.
From yearly, quarterly, monthly, and weekly targets, right down to daily to-do lists, goal-setting helps to maximize overall productivity and performance by providing you with a sense of achievement towards the overall vision, each and every day.
What is the future of SmartFrame?
At SmartFrame, we’re on a mission to redefine the digital image standard.
I would like to believe that in five to ten years’ time, we will change the face of the internet and the way images are distributed online, with the ultimate goal of being an inherent part of all camera devices and web browsers.
In doing so, we want to help overcome all the challenges discussed earlier, namely, preventing loss of rights and revenue from photographers and image owners; preventing counterfeit sellers from using genuine brand product imagery to sell illicit goods online; helping combat misinformation and disinformation; and protecting personal content from identity theft and misuse.
Ultimately, we want to help create a clearer, cleaner, fairer, and more transparent online environment when it comes to image use.
Want to learn more? Browse the website to discover our unique image-streaming technology and contextual in-image advertising, or click here to view our latest vacancies.
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