Today's Entrepreneur: Ian Stephens

Mitos Suson · November 2, 2016 · Short URL: https://vator.tv/n/47c2

No. 1 mistake: Going it alone or being terrible at delegation

Today's Entrepreneur is Ian Stephens. Ian is a Founder and CEO at Magnolia Moonshine and a Co-Founder and CMO at Reely.

Magnolia Moonshine Cocktails are old-fashioned recipes made to serve, while Reely is an end-to-end content solution for sports leagues and content providers. They have created an automated highlight generation system that uses computer vision and deep learning artificial intelligence to instantly identify, generate, and distribute highlight plays from sporting events.

Here's a little about Ian:

I am a(n): Entrepreneur

Companies I've founded or co-founded: Magnolia Moonshine, Reely

Companies I work or worked for: Feeling Smitten

Achievements (products built, personal awards won):

Performing in Carnegie Hall, Building a brand (Feeling Smitten) that's been featured by Oprah and carried in thousands of shops, hotels and spas, publishing my first comic book.

If you are an entrepreneur, why? Because I love the ultimate challenge. If you want to enjoy the view you have to climb the mountain.

My favorite startups: Dollar Shave Club, Uber, Kiva, Airbnb, Choremonster, Kickstarter

What's most frustrating and rewarding about entrepreneurship/innovation? I'm impatient so the frustrating part is that things are NEVER moving as fast as I want them to. So much of entrepreneurship is just putting one foot in front of the other every single day. Innovation is as close to creation as we mortals can reach. It's our opportunity to grasp the Promethean flame and change the future.

What's the No. 1 mistake entrepreneurs make? Going it alone or being terrible at delegation. You're only as good as the team around you. Choose wisely.

What are the top three lessons you've learned as an entrepreneur?

You're only as good as the team you've surrounded yourself with.

If your message isn't crystal clear, you'll never be heard.

Every day there is something you can do or something you can improve that will put you closer to realizing your future. Find that thing and...DO IT!

Full bio:

My passion is building brands. The following are examples of recent ventures:

Founder // Reely

Reely is the future of sports highlight delivery. We use our proprietary computer vision software to to deliver streaming video highlights straight to your mobile device. Simply select your favorite sports teams and you'll be able to vote on highlights, save them to your own personalized highlight reel and share across media platforms.

No more searching through social media or waiting on SportsCenter to watch the big play you missed. Reely is instant gratification for mobile sports lovers everywhere.

Founder & CEO // Magnolia Moonshine

Magnolia Moonshine spirits are old-fashioned recipes made to serve. Each small batch is handcrafted with 100% fruit and aged with non GMO Georgia corn whiskey for natural sweetness and a smooth finish. Magnolia Moonshine can be found in premier steakhouses around the Pacific Northwest and will launch on the East Coast in 2017.

Owner // Feeling Smitten Bath & Body

As featured by Oprah, People Magazine, Good Morning America and many more, Feeling Smitten's line of bakery themed bath and beauty products are carried in over 2,000 gift shops, spas and hotels from Seattle to Dubai.

Editor's Note: Splash is Vator's startup conference, gathering top CEOs to share their lessons learned, and highlighting promising new ones. This year's winner and runner-up were Industry and Arbiclaims, respective. Reely was one of the top 8 finalist at the Global Splash competition.

Our annual Post Seed conference is around the corner on Dec. 1 at The Village in San Francisco. Speakers include Chamath Palihapitiya (Founder & CEO, Social Capital LP) and Jeff Lawson (Founder, CEO & Chairman,Twilio) and many more. Join us! REGISTER HERE. Be eligible to get a complimentary ticket to Post Seed. Join the Vator Investment Club before Thanksgiving. Join VIC.

Mitos Suson

I produce Vator Events and enjoy the challenge. I am learning and growing a lot, being involved with Vator and loving every moment of it!

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Reely

Startup/Business

Joined Vator on August 4, 2016

Our proprietary deep learning systems to create scalable solutions for leagues, teams and content distributors. From highlight packages for digital or broadcast to analytics, scouting and beyond, Reely is the comprehensive solution for data-driven, video intensive challenges.

Our platform automatically detects highlights at 10x the speed of real time with over 95% accuracy in field sports, like football, soccer and basketball using three parallel classes of identification.

Reely’s tech represents over $2M in savings per league per year* and creates myriad new opportunities for leagues to distribute and monetize content more efficiently.

Our cloud based software maximizes efficiency and allows Reely to be the nimble, scalable monetization solution for leagues and content owners who understand the future of mobile sports content.

"Reely uses computer vision and deep learning algorithms to automatically create highlights from a variety of sporting events. The Reely mobile app feeds from this backend infrastructure to create the ultimate distribution platform for fan engagement. This software provides professional production capabilities at a fraction of the cost."
Carl Kirchhoff // Co-Founder, EverSport Media