On site in Denmark: Behind the scenes with Veo

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This year, I’ve spent a lot of time on the road, meeting with customers and capturing their stories for Now Go Build. Today, we’re releasing one of my favorite episodes, which features Veo, a sports technology startup based in Denmark. And while I could spend an entire post on their history or their tech stack, I want to do something a bit different. I want to focus on what happens behind the scenes.

A tremendous amount of effort goes into creating each episode of Now Go Build. From customer research, to pre-production, to filming, to post-production, the process spans months. Take for example, interviews. We spend hours upon hours (sometimes a full week) interviewing customers and collecting B-roll just to produce a single 20-minute episode. It’s an incredible amount of work, but work I find interesting, because I’m constantly learning how our customers are using technology to solve hard problems. But what happens to the rest of the footage?

A lot of what we film is left on the cutting room floor. Veo is a perfect example. I had an opportunity to sit with two of the co-founders, Keld and Henrik, for nearly 90-minutes. We discussed everything from the overwhelming work it takes to get a startup off the ground to the challenges they have faced building their own hardware. But a lot of this didn’t make it into the episode. So, I’d like to share a bit of that conversation with you now (and don’t worry, we have trimmed it down to 15-minutes).

In many ways, Veo embodies the leadership principles we hold true at Amazon, like “Invent and Simplify”, and “Are Right, A Lot”. They work backwards from the customer, and drive their decisions with data. It’s an invaluable lesson for startups and young businesses alike.

It was an absolute pleasure to meet Keld, Henrik, and all of the wonderful people at Veo. I hope you enjoy the latest episode as much as I enjoyed filming it. Now, go build!