Letterboxd founder talks about sales company and potential expansion into TV

Courtesy of Letterboxd

Matt Buchanan and Carl von Landau, two big movie buffs who started Letterboxd as a part-time labor of love, have sold a majority stake in the business.

So what’s different now? Two New Zealanders say not that many. variety. First of all, they will still be responsible for running Letterboxd. “We’re not expecting big changes,” von Rand said. “You don’t suddenly have four new bosses.”

Letterboxd’s founders have chosen to sell control to Canadian investment firm Tiny. This pegs the company’s value at a level above his $50 million. This is due to the company’s relatively laissez-faire philosophy. “Instead of feeling like we’ve been swallowed whole by something huge, their approach is to get involved when founders need help,” von Landau said. I am.

One of Letterboxd’s next big moves is adding more TV shows that users can rate, review, and track. But that’s not new, and it’s not necessarily accelerated by investing in Tiny, Buchanan said. Television “has been in the spotlight for several years now,” he says. “We’ve been prototyping it.”

Buchanan said there are concerns among some Letterboxd fans that expanding into television might be problematic. “The main pushback to the idea of ​​adding TV is that our community probably fears that movie recordings will be overwhelmed by people binge-watching Friends,” he told Letterboxd. is not ready to share exactly how it will bring TV to its platform, but says its priority is to “deploy TV without disrupting the experience of people who are already using it.” . Buchanan also pointed out that the structure of a television series is structurally different from a movie, with television having multiple seasons and episodes, and that “members want to respond to every level of a show, season, episode.” did.

Buchanan and von Landau started Letterboxd in 2011, working on it part-time as a side project in their web design studio. Usage exploded after the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak. Now, just over three years later, he has over 10 million registered accounts on the service. The founders hired their first full-time employee in March 2020, and the company now has nearly 20 employees (not including multiple freelancers and part-timers).

“We were beginning to reach the high point of our experience” in terms of running the company, Buchanan says. “Carl and I were starting to think we needed help…we needed guidance to take us to the next level,” said Tiny co-founder Andrew Wilkinson earlier this year. “This is a partnership that we could potentially benefit from.”

Buchanan said that going back to 2013, Letterboxd received acquisition offers from various companies. However, none of them were particularly successful. It never seemed like the right partner. ”

Mr Buchanan also said it was important to “remain independent of the industry” and therefore could not consider offers from specific interested buyers. “Letterboxd occupies a very interesting niche between studios, filmmakers, and communities, bringing people together in a unique way,” he says.

Approximately half of Letterboxd’s employees are based in New Zealand, including department heads and engineering teams, with the other half scattered across the US, Canada and the UK.

Wilkinson explains Tiny’s investment in Letterboxd and its overall strategy: “We’re just looking for companies that have happy employees, happy customers and are doing some good in the world.”

Wilkinson first met Buchanan over a decade ago and began following him on Tumblr. He has been following Letterboxd for several years now. In March 2023, Mr Wilkinson traveled to Auckland, New Zealand for a conference and met with Mr Buchanan. “I asked him, ‘Have you ever thought about selling it?’ He was worried that if the wrong person bought it, he would ruin it.” Wilkinson said. According to the company, the offer was sent within 24 hours.

Tiny’s portfolio of majority-owned companies includes Dribble, Girlboss, MetaLab, Pixel Union, AeroPress, and Stamped. Wilkinson said both are cash-flow positive and highly profitable ventures. But unlike some investment firms and roll-up plays, Tiny isn’t trying to force its portfolio companies to form partnerships. “Forcing two companies to work together is a good way to generate resentment,” he says.

“We’re pretty unconventional people,” Wilkinson says. “a [private equity] The company will say, “We’ll send someone to your office.” But we don’t do that. ” Tiny holds her company’s board of directors meeting once a year and otherwise requires monthly financial reports to be sent.

Not coincidentally, Wilkinson is a big movie buff. “My happy place is sitting in a dark theater,” he says. “I’m a father. I’m busy. My escape is going to the movies.”

Pictured above: Matthew Buchanan (left) and Carl von Landau