Lightt enables easy video sharing
by Doug Bardwell
Lightt is a mobile video creation and sharing platform that makes it easy to capture, shape and share any moment of your life. Lightt reimagines mobile video as a new medium, continually innovating better ways to use it in everyday life. With Lightt you can capture video moments and connect them into a continuous video timeline, like an ongoing movie, and add your own soundtrack as you record. Lightt is the first to introduce real-time editing and personalization so you can shape your story as you go. www.lightt.com
Today we are talking with Alex Mostoufi, co-founder and CEO of Lightt.
Alex, how would you describe the current state of mobile video and social sharing?
Mobile video is just getting started. Video is the perfect form of communication because it really captures what’s happening in the moment but it also allows for unlimited creative expression. Most mobile video apps today limit what you can do. They only let you capture a few seconds at a time. They do this because they want to get around the limitations of editing and uploading. But the best moments in life are more than a few seconds long. With Lightt, we give you the ability to capture a few seconds or up to several minutes at a time. You can also add filters and effects, even music, as you capture so you are creating the perfect video in the moment—without any homework for later.
How do you envision social video evolving from here?
A few years from now we will look back and wonder how we lived without having video windows into our daily lives and into the lives of family and friends. Already we see people using Lightt for everything from capturing the special everyday moments that happen in their lives to creating full music videos with their friends. People are going to get more and more comfortable with creating and sharing videos very quickly and building them into stories. Here are a few examples:
https://lightt.com/share/DwQapbCYBPNJY6D6q6gvSL/?awesm=ligh.tt_r5k6
https://lightt.com/share/6v8XPGoFHqJncZNqODPI2/?awesm=ligh.tt_f6jD
With users already using Vine and Instagram, why Lightt?
These networks are helping to get people comfortable with pictures and get started with video, but it’s really just the tip of the iceberg. A few seconds of video doesn’t capture the moment or allow you to bring together all your personal memories. You also need the ability to easily edit most video to make it great. Remember the FlipCam? That was an awesome product that got a lot of people making videos who had never tried doing it before. This is why we created Lightt. We are building on the idea of the FlipCam on your smartphone. We are your video camera, storage and sharing all in one. We make it effortless to shoot as much video as you want, then you can immediately do things like trim a clip (make it shorter), rearrange clips, even reverse! We see a lot of people having fun with that.
How are people using Lightt and Lightt 3.0?
First let me tell you how easy it is to capture with Lightt. To record, you just press your finger, then release it to stop recording. You can bring in music directly from your iTunes and it will overlay automatically. So as you start and stop your video capture, the music starts and stops as well. There is no need to post editing your music. You can also add a voice over if you want.
And one of the most unique aspects of Lightt is that we bring the videos you capture together automatically into an ongoing personal timeline that you can watch as a continuous movie.
With these features, we see people capturing so many aspects of their daily lives, including the small moments like a walk on a beautiful fall day, a lunch with friends or a favorite street at rush hour. We also see lots of big moments like trips to Paris and even Mt Everest, a wedding or a toddler just starting to walk. People who want to express their creativity are building very detailed stories.
How is the addition of music going to change the game for mobile videos and social sharing?
The way we access and listen to music has changed a lot over the past few years. The classic music video that showed up on TV once upon a time is now repeated and being remade over and over again all over the Web. People don’t just want to watch a packaged commercial music video, they want to create their own and they want to watch their friends.
Since we added the music feature to Lightt 3.0, we’re seeing a lot of people adding music in their videos. Music is an important part of everyone’s life. Music helps to define who we are, how we feel and how we view the world. It also helps us remember. Music adds emotional depth and fun to any video.
So tell me a bit about your background
I’ve been in consumer technology and applications for about 15 years. I’ve worked at a lot of great companies like Adobe and Yahoo and also created several companies, including a company called me.com that is now part of Apple. I am always looking ahead to see how technology can enhance people’s lives.
Thanks Alex. We’ll stop on over to http://lightt.com and have a look.
More about Alex:
Alex Mostoufi is the co-founder and CEO of Lightt and a passionate entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience nurturing ideas and building companies. His companies include me.com, founded in 2005, which was acquired by Apple in 2007. He has also been part of Adobe, Yahoo, SNAPP and Santa.com. Alex holds a BS in Computer Science from San Jose State University.