Meet Venture Leader Nikos Kariotoglou's adaptive motion control technology startup

18.03.2019 11:10, Guillaume Tinsel

Ten Venture Leaders will represent Switzerland in Silicon Valley in March. Meet Nikos Kariotoglou, co-founder of Seervision. Learn more about adaptive motion control technology and Nikos’ expectations on his roadshow in Silicon Valley.

Can you introduce yourself, how your company started and what your project is?
My name is Nikos Kariotoglou, I was born in Greece and have lived abroad since I was 18, studying in London and Zurich. Seervision, the result of an innovative side project I ran at ETH Zurich with my co-founder Reto Hofmann, combines visual feedback and human-like camera control. We decided to start a company when we realized the size of the opportunity for our technology in the live broadcasting market.

What attracted you to Silicon Valley as a business development destination?
Some of the most innovative minds in live broadcasting, and especially in sports, are either developing their technologies in the Valley or scouting there for the most promising new products. We pride ourselves on being pioneers of adaptive motion control technology and Silicon Valley is the best place to raise awareness about us in the U.S. market. The U.S. is the largest market in our industry right now.

What do you hope to achieve from the trip? What are your expectations and goals?
Our first product is already on the market. Early adopters who want to install an autonomous cameraman, partners who want to push their technology to a higher level, and influential investors active in media and live entertainment need to know about us. What better way to achieve this than going there and telling them in person? We’ll measure the success of our trip by the leads we are able to convert when I return to Zurich.

Why is Venture Leaders Technology beneficial for your startup?
Over the last years, this program has established itself as ‘the’ outreach platform for early-stage startups from Switzerland. Being part of this initiative is both a great help for our expansion plans and a badge on our list of achievements



What is pushing you towards international expansion?
The potential. Our market doesn’t have regional boundaries. Video production is the same all over the world. What affects our success is the openness to automation and companies’ willingness to integrate new technology. We need to go beyond Switzerland to explore this potential, and that is what we are doing.

What do you foresee as the largest hurdles towards expansion into the U.S. market?
It may sound boring, but I’m sure the largest hurdles will be legal and administrative. We need to establish subsidiary companies, buy insurance, and make sure we have all the correct certification to sell our products in the U.S. Once this is done, the beauty of the U.S. market is that everyone is an entrepreneur, and if you find the right sales channels, everything will move extremely fast.
What makes you most nervous or excited about the trip?
I am very excited to talk about our technology with specialized funds and ‘partners in crime’ – companies working on solutions for the video entertainment industry.

Do you have a “funny/best day” anecdote about being an entrepreneur?
It is easier to share the worst day thought: every entrepreneur’s trip is full of ups and downs. One thing common to all is that every day is exciting, and we are lucky to be genuinely excited to get to the office in the morning and tackle challenges head-on. If this is gone, everything is up in the air.



Read about the Startup Champions kick-off event and follow the trip on Twitter using the hashtag #VLeadersTech

Venture Leaders Technology is sponsored by Rothschild & Co Bank, Kellerhals Carrard, DPD, Swisscom, Canton de Vaud, ETH Zürich and EPF Lausanne.