A true online pioneer: That’s what we’ve got on our hands with Greg Clayman, president of Video Secrets. A lot of guys will thump their chests and tell you how great they are in this industry, but Clayman is above that.
The New Hampshire-born father of two formed Video Secrets in 1996 with long-time friend Chuck Tsiamis, whom he has known since third grade. In the pre-broadband era of 1996, video chat wasn’t exactly what it is today, but Clayman and Tsiamis caught a wave, jumping on video streaming early and pushing it hard. Their foresight paid off. In 10 years, they’ve built Video Secrets into one of the most successful and forward-thinking companies in the business, although you won’t hear them say too much about it.
Why a video-chat business in 1996?
We were surfing the Internet and saw that there weren’t a lot of players out there. We were doing video chat one night and thought we could do it better than anyone else by applying what we learned in our previous businesses: intestinal fortitude, ethics, hard work, and determination.
Seems like you were a little before your time with that technology.
When we started off, we did broadcasting point-to-point, meaning one modem to the next modem. Around 1998, video streaming came out where you could go right into the browser. A lot of companies in our field continued to push point-to-point, whereas we were one of the first companies to not only come out with the true technology behind video streaming, but we pushed it the hardest, seeing that it was the future. We didn’t feel people wanted to download a client [to play live video], and if we could push it right through the browser, then we felt more people would use it.
That was the turning point in your business?
It was kind of a window of opportunity for us, and we really just pushed it. It turned out that consumers really preferred this method of online video chat.
I can’t imagine that a live video-chat operation made tons of money in the pre-broadband days.
[Chuckles] In the beginning it was a difficult road. Because we’ve always taken the ethical approach, we basically built our business like a mainstream company. We built one day at a time and one consumer at a time. We weren’t making tremendous revenue, but we felt if we provided the best end-user experience for the consumer that our consumer base would grow. And by providing the best content for the consumers, the webmasters would make more money and our webmaster base would grow, and it did.
Are you a tech geek?
No, I would consider myself an entrepreneur and people person.
How did you end up with a technology focused company?
Chuck and I saw this as an opportunity, and one of the things we’ve held onto is to always surround yourself with the best and brightest people. We went out and found some of the best technology experts in the world to come work with us, and we weren’t afraid to let people know that we didn’t know it all.
Do you like porn?
I guess the answer is yes. Adult entertainment has always intrigued me. Being able to provide it over the Internet to customers around the world very much intrigued me. Being able to provide it live brought in our entrepreneurial spirit. Based on the fact that adult entertainment is not seasonal and not based on the economy and the factors that affect many other businesses, the combination of high technology and adult entertainment seemed to be the perfect match.
You sold insurance before this. Was that the most boring job ever?
It’s what Chuck and I did out of college. It’s difficult trying to sell people something they don’t want to think about and something they’ll never see the benefit of. We were both successful at it and said if we can be successful in insurance, then we can be successful in this.
How did you transition to technology and adult?
My biggest market when I was in the insurance and financial fields was young entrepreneurs. I met some tech-savvy people, and we came up with the idea. I actually stayed with insurance as we started up the company. When the company began to become successful and needed sales and marketing, I made the break. I was selling insurance by day and marketing the business by night. It got to the point where I wanted to put all my marketing and sales efforts into the business.
What is it like building a company with someone you’ve been friends with for this long?
It’s phenomenal. The relationship I have with Chuck is unlike any relationship I’ve had. We trust each other with our lives, our families—and it certainly made it easier to build the company when there’s that trust involved. Not to say we didn’t have our disagreements over the years, but being as close as we’ve been, we’ve always been able to work through them.
Tell me about the industry in the late ’90s.
It was the Wild West. You could almost do whatever you wanted. There were no rules or spam laws. The Internet was starting to boom, and back then, Clinton really had a hands-off policy. In our case, we made our own rules based on ethics. The way we define ethics is what you do when people aren’t looking and is that something you can be proud of? We really stayed the straight and narrow in the hopes that building an adult video-chat business like any mainstream business would pay off in the long run.
How does it feel to be in this industry for 10 years?
It really is amazing when I think about it. There are very few companies in our industry that have been in operation in excess of a decade, let alone staying true to their core competency all the while. I’m aware of a few companies that have been around for as long as we have, however most seem to have changed gears over the years to adapt to where the money seemed to be at the time. We’ve always stayed true to the live video chat marketplace and have consistently pushed the envelope as far as technology, consumer experience, and our affiliate programs no matter where the bigger money seemed to be at the time.
Back in 1996, did you think you would reach a milestone like this?
I can honestly say that in 1996 we were thinking much more about just making it through the day rather than the possibility of 10-plus years. There were so many changes taking place on a constant basis; it seemed like every single day we were faced with another major challenge. Live video-chat technology was changing from point-to-point to video-to-video streaming, Visa and MasterCard were making new rules and regulations to adapt to the Internet, and the government went from hands off to hands on. It was really the Wild West when we started, and we had to navigate around a landscape that seemed to be ever-changing and unknown.
Who do you look up to in this industry?
A few people: Steven Hirsch for his business acumen and the way he continues to keep Vivid on top with the classiest of images; Larry Flynt for fighting for what he believes in and continuing to reinvent himself over the years, and also Paul Fishbein for supporting the industry for more than 20 years and helping put people together.
You’ve been trying to get into the mainstream. Is that tougher than you thought?
We’re always pushing for a more mainstream presence. We always try to present an image of class. The TV, satellite, and cable industries are getting more comfortable with adult content. One of my jobs as president of this company is to look forward and see where we want to be in five years, 10 years, and so on, and then to formulate a plan on how to get there. By keeping a high-class image and having strong ethics, we feel like we’re in an excellent position for the future. As we see it, the future is live video chat through your television, in hotels, through mobile devices—and it’s just a matter of the technology catching up to us. Once it gets there, one of the reasons we keep such a straight-and-narrow image is so we can approach such companies in the mainstream and they can feel comfortable doing business with us.
Do you have any mainstream ventures?
We talk on a regular basis to cable companies and satellite companies that are working on technology to bring this into people’s homes and hotel rooms.
What makes you tick after all these years?
It’s really the pursuit of perfection and growth. I see that there is no finish line. Every day when I wake up I try to think of new ideas to continue to grow the business.
If you were ever on the cover of Forbes, what would you want the headline to read?
We’ve been in Forbes and we really have no desire to be on the cover, because we believe that being successful and maintaining anonymity is much better than being successful and having to deal with the price of fame.
So you’re telling me that if they came to you and asked you to be on the cover, you’d say no?
I see what you’re saying, and I guess we wouldn’t say no. In that case, the headline would read: “Teamwork, Ethics, and Raw Determination Propel Live Video-Chat Entrepreneurs to the Top.”
