Austin, TX is experiencing a tech boom and three founders were not going to miss out. Abigail Rose, Albert Baez, and Georgina Elizondo Griffin saw that the creative supply chain of today’s marketing sphere is outdated and disconnected in a time when creative services are in high demand because content has rapidly become the cornerstone of marketing for every industry. Quality, creative services have not been available to small business owners, while creative professionals are undervalued by traditional agencies and freelancing networks. They founded Blended Sense in order to revolutionize production services and media technology alike. Here is their origin story:
Two-thirds of the Blended Sense founding team is made up of Albert and Abigail Baez. Living in Austin since 2014, the married duo was passionate about creativity and building communities long before the idea for their business struck.
While being grateful for the opportunities to work on commercial sets in Austin, the reality of making a living as a creative professional had set in for Abigail. It consisted of waiting long periods of time for paychecks, combing the internet for local ‘acting related’ paying gigs, and using other emerging technologies such as Lyft or Postmates to fill in the gaps between paychecks. For Abigail, it felt like there needed to be something just as easy as working for these apps, that could connect her to local gigs that truly valued her creative skills that she spent years training for. Flipside, Albert was working on the sales floor of a company that did marketing for small businesses. While listening to his reps takes calls from customers asking about the new photoshoot package, a light went off.
“As a manager I heard everyone's calls all day long. Every customer wanted to know if they got another photoshoot, if they owned the photos, if they could have the full gallery...and the answer to all of it was a no.”
Frustrated, but inspired and motivated, Albert quit his job. With Abigail’s ideas around the production industry combined with Albert’s real-time market research, they felt like they could create the ultimate solution for both the small business owner and the freelancing creative professional.
Fast-forward to the summer of 2018, Blended Sense had begun supplying customers with a menu of quick, content services. They knew they wanted to build a platform, but Albert felt it was critical to be in the field first in order to figure out the best processes. During this R&D, Blended Sense hired Georgina as a photographer and the team of three clicked right away. Working together on several projects, it became obvious that she had more to offer than just a good eye. Expressing her own desire to move in a new direction with her career, historically in technology and project management, Georgina became a permanent part of the founding Blended Sense team as CPO.
Green but ambitious, the founders decided to kick off 2019 by engaging in a ‘creative class innovations’ Incubator through Media Tech Ventures. Four months later with business model in hand, board stacked with advisors, ‘incorporated’ stamped on the paperwork, and a tiny seed of capital: Blended Sense was officially born.
Today, you can find the Blended Sense team working in the Capital Factory Accelerator, known as the “center of gravity for entrepreneurship in Texas”. What has transpired is nothing short of persistence. Tripling their customer base, expanding their creative network, and starting to build the platform to run it all on, Blended Sense has definitely ‘accelerated’ since joining in September. Most recently, Blended Sense won ‘Start Up of the Year’ at the Capital Factory Venture Summit.
2019 is coming to a close, and Blended Sense’s origin comes full circle as its first true year of business rounds out. They have aggressive expansion planned for 2020 with the launch of their MVP and hopes of closing out their first official round of funding.
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