Creating great jobs

Zach Klein and Jake Lodwick created the sophisticated video platform Vimeo in their early twenties. Three years later Zach sold his part of the company because he wanted be commit himself to other projects. Today he regrets this step.

As opposed to the video platform YouTube which is ever-extending, having none whatsoever quality features, and showing everything including a wobbly mobile phone clip, a glossy commercial, a 70s documentary with image interferences, or illegal music streamings, Vimeo trusted its community from the very start. They were against commercials, trailers for video or computer games, and contents not generated by the users themselves. Instead, they promoted design and user friendly application: 2007, for example, Vimeo became the first video platform with HD support, thus setting standards the competitors had to cope with - they made the platform very popular with independent film makers and artists. Internet users consider Vimeo to be a synonym for quality content with class.

Even though Zach Klein has become an entrepreneur roaming many fields of the digital world today, he has come to regret the fact that he sold his part of Vimeo in 2007. In our video, recorded at the C’n’B 2011, he explains why it is more important, especially for young and successful start-ups, to stay loyal to their own companies in order to develop it together with committed co-workers than to sell it for millions of Dollars (or Euros) after its financial break-through. Today, his motto is: money, however big the amount may be, could never substitute a great and satisfying job in the long run.