Learnings from Alex Loverde: Recognizing Your Pivot Point

The year is 2012, Instagram has just been acquired by Facebook, and there is a feeling in the air that you can work on a startup for eighteen months, sell it, and earn a couple million off your blockbuster idea. At least, that was the plan for Alex Loverde when he began SyncOnSet.

Initially, his idea was to identify clothing products that were onscreen in TV shows and movies. However, while this concept was both unique and desirable to consumers, it became increasingly difficult to create. How do you obtain the data on every piece of clothing in every movie and TV show? Where do you store it? These questions led his founding team to the movie studios themselves.

After meeting with industry experts, Alex discovered an acute pain point: the data for all clothing items was recorded by hand, an inefficient and labor-intensive strategy. With this discovery came the realization that there was a clear need for organizational software.

This became Alex’s pivot point. Instead of charging for identifying products on screen, SyncOnSet charged movie studios for his initial service: costume organization and coordination. Through constant iteration, SyncOnSet reached product-market fit and was able to spread across the industry.

Alex ended his fireside chat emphasizing the difficulty of building and running a sustainable company. He noted that, “it never gets easier, but it is always necessary to handle and manage”. Alex was able to handle and manage, recognizing his pivot point and how that recognition became the fine line between success and failure. He was able to bring his initial vision to fruition—identifying products onscreen in real time—but it was the importance of Alex’s pivot that left an indelible mark on SSC’s 2021 cohort.