In The Room with Analisa Goodin
In this week’s episode of The Room Podcast, Madison and Claudia chat with Analisa Goodin, Founder and CEO of Catch&Release, a company making it easier to discover the best content for an open web and making it available for licensing to agencies and brands worldwide. As a classically trained artist and art historian, Analisa personally understood these pain points of creatives. This past April, Catch & Release announced its $15M Series A, led by Accel.
We cover the key themes of the intersection between art, creatives, and technology, tips for fundraising and pitching for founders who don’t have traditional tech backgrounds, and how Analisa translated customer pain points into a scalable marketplace. Let’s open the door.
Season 3 is sponsored by SVB and Cooley. Find this newest episode of The Room Podcast on all streaming platforms, including iTunes and Spotify. Enjoy!
Key Takeaway 1: Intersection between art, creatives, and technology
Without a business or tech background, Analisa’s entry point into the market for what Catch&Release is now came from her background in art and design. Analisa received a Bachelor in Fine Arts, studied in Italy for two years, completed art residencies in South Africa and Tuscany, had a studio practice in the Bay Area, and finished a Masters in Art Theory and Visual Culture. This background led her to founding Catch&Release as she really understood and empathized with creatives and their lack of tools and financial resources. Being in the San Francisco ecosystem is also symbolic of Analisa’s intersecting paths between art and technology:
“San Francisco used to be a city of artists, but its heritage actually is not in tech. It’s in art and poetry and visual. I guess my entryway into tech was a little bit the same as my entryway into licensing. I was kind of naive to a side of it because of a deep passion for the other side of it. And when the two things merged, like search and licensing were merged, sort of my concept and tech merged. And that was a really exciting moment where I felt like, wow, I really am in the right place at the right time.”
Key Takeaway 2: Tips for fundraising and pitching for founders who don’t have traditional tech backgrounds
One of the best pieces of advice Analisa received in her fundraising journey was that “it’s hard until it’s not.” For her, raising the first million dollars was like stealing a mountain, but then the 2 million was much easier. Focusing on the first part of the journey, therefore, is the most important. Going in early, even when you’re not quite ready, is great in order to test the story and ask for advice from other people. She says, “when you want money, ask for advice, and when you want advice, ask for money.” Analisa also advises founders to run your rough drafts by not only ideal partners but also people you respect and trust, whether it is leaders of risk, family at Thanksgiving, or friends.
Key Takeaway 3: How Analisa translated customer pain points into a scalable marketplace
Like many startups, Catch&Release started with the question why doesn’t this exist? Analisa observed the market for a few years, thinking to herself that existing players would make a move. While some platforms made stabs at the issue of curation and licensing, no one had the first hand pain and frustration that Analisa felt as a creative herself. She soon realized that this pain was not only hers, but also that of her team and customers. By then completing thorough market research, Analisa was able to beta test the idea with experts in their own right and was given enough validation to turn this into a product.
Thank you so much for joining us on another episode of The Room Podcast. A brand new episode launches next week.
