After being noticed by a global media company and a popular graphic design website, Wichita startup Quicc has impressed thousands of users and lots of investors through its captioning and video-search services.
Soon, they hope to sign a contract with a major news media company.
Quicc, which launched in 2019, has three major components. The first offers captioning services in more than 40 languages. The second makes videos searchable by content. The third service, for now, is using artificial intelligence to summarize what is in a video.
"It's fast, accurate, automated transcription," said Tom McAndrew, the CEO of Quicc. "We're helping [customers] accomplish these tedious tasks of transcribing and captioning."
After being chosen by media giant Comcast as a top startup in which to invest both time and money, Quicc has changed its management, with the two founders transitioning to advisory roles and a new CEO, McAndrew, taking over.
"Jason (Toevs) and I have built this," said Mike Mathia, one of the co-founders of Quicc and board member. "Tom is poised to take it to the next step."
What does Quicc do?
The company provides captions in more than 40 languages in upwards of 125 countries to 20,000 users on Canva, an Australian-based graphic design and video site.
"We help video creators and teams find the 'moments that matter' in their video archives with our innovative search technology," Mathia said.
Along with being a fast-captioning service, Quicc can generate searchable material from videos, including church sermons, school board meetings, political speeches, documentaries, sports events and city council meetings. No matter the length of the video, Quicc can make the video searchable.
"We've launched generative AI technologies for generating tags and summarizing content," McAndrew said. "They can take the human out of that editing loop. We've had over 80,000 transcripts that have come in."
Members of the Australian Parliament, the Church of England and soccer players have used their services.
"We are adding a data structure to unstructured data," McAndrew said. "That's a tedious task (for companies). We can help them with finding the content. It's a game-changer."
Its first big break
Last spring, Quicc was chosen as one of 10 startups to join the third class of the Comcast NBCUniversal SportsTech Accelerator, which had more than 900 applicants from more than 40 countries. Comcast whittled the group to 10.
Experts from Comcast, NBCUniversal, Sky, Boomtown, and SportsTech’s advisors work to improve products and services and prepare for each of the 10 startups' success with partners and the broader sports industry. NBC Sports, NASCAR, WWE, USA Cycling, the PGA Tour and U.S. Olympic sports organizations are all a part of the network.
Comcast funds and fast-tracks whom it thinks are the most innovative startups.
"In Wichita, sometimes we don't get the credit we deserve for being innovators in this ecosystem," Mathia said.
Mathia and co-founder Toevs applied to Comcast, interviewed and landed the opportunity.
"We are thrilled to have Quicc as part of our 2023 Comcast NBCUniversal SportsTech accelerator class,” Jenna Kurath, vice president, Startup Partnerships and head of SportsTech said in an email. “While the cc in Quicc stands for closed captioning, Quicc uses AI to provide far more – delivering a powerful video content management system that automates video transcription, captioning, searching and clipping workflows.”
How it all started
After pursuing a variety of business ventures, two Wichita State University graduates paths' crossed. Mathia, a business major from Derby, and Toevs, a mathematics major who grew up on a farm in Whitewater, linked visions and started an innovative video capturing business.
The men grew the company and the idea, and simultaneously they built a board of directors.
When Comcast invested, Mathia and Toevs knew it was time to find a new face for the company. They turned to McAndrew, who joined the board in 2020. Because he holds bachelor's and master's degrees from Stanford University and played football in college, the founders thought he was a good fit.
"Tom (McAndrew) is poised to take it (Quicc) over and take it to the next step," Mathia said. "So Jason and I decided it's time to kind of pass this leadership baton."
Mathia will remain on the board, and both men will advise, while keeping stock in the company.
"It's a true story of the signs coming together," McAndrew said. "They're going to continue to support me."
McAndrew said what they are doing is shining a light on passing the torch for other entrepreneurs.
"It's an encouragement to our business community of these transitions; they are milestones for celebration and will launch paths for growth," he said.
Startup sets a path
Along with catching the attention of customers and global companies, investors also have their eye on this Wichita startup.
"Quicc is a resilient company whose technology tools have garnered the attention of some very interesting potential customers," said Jacob O'Connor, syndicate manager for Accelerate Venture Partners, a program of Wichita-based NXTUS. "There’s nothing an investor likes more than customer traction."
Currently, Quicc's offices are in an old warehouse next to the railroad tracks in Old Town. McAndrew envisions the business staying in Wichita but growing exponentially and building a large structure, attracting visionaries to Wichita and keeping others here.
"We're looking to grow the team here," McAndrew said. "There's a lot of intrinsic excitement."
Along with bringing opportunities to Wichita, Quicc looks forward to remaining in the city.
"Quicc's win is Wichita's win," Mathia said.
Community investment is crucial to developing a healthy entrepreneurial ecosystem.
"Wichita has taken huge steps over the past few years, and there has been a large effort to mobilize capital from diverse investors into innovative startups," O'Connor said. "These investments create new jobs here, spur collaboration and, most importantly, help diverse entrepreneurs build companies of significance."
