Interview with Shrimoyee Chakraborty, Global Chief Marketing Officer of LiveTree
Find out how Shrimoyee Chakraborty raised £2million of funds for her first business aged just 24. And why she’s now excited about the latest venture she’s been involved in: social streaming platform LiveTree.
What’s your business background?
I founded my first business Calcutta Street, a chain of restaurants in London at the age of 24 with more than £2M funding from VC funds and PE fund.
Following that I launched a french food brand Taster in London and opened five sites for them. I am currently the Global Chief Marketing Officer for LiveTree.
You previously launched the restaurant chain Calcutta Streets. What are the key lessons you learned from that venture?
The biggest lesson I learnt was that following your passion and dreams always pays off because everyone can see the passion. Hence even after 1 year of closing my restaurants I still get people messaging me when will I open it again.
The other big lesson learnt was it’s never enough just to follow your passion you need to be strategic about knowing how to monetise it because otherwise the passion just turns into stress.
What is LiveTree, and how did you get involved?
LiveTree is a social streaming platform, so think Facebook meets Netflix – You can watch films while engaging with your friends and artists. We launched less than two months back and have received incredible response with over 250k subscribers already and been covered by most major press in the UK – Evening Standard, Forbes, Sky News, Variety, Screen Daily to name a few.
I met the founder Ashley Turing at an event and we got chatting – I always wanted to work in film and TV where I had the opportunity to promote and work with independent filmmakers and artists and help those amazing festival quality films make money. LiveTree was the perfect platform for that.
What’s your role at LiveTree?
I am the Creative Director, Head of Content and also the LiveTree agony aunt!
What makes LiveTree different to other streaming platforms like Netflix?
The prime difference is that we are not just a streaming platform, we are streaming mixed with engagement. So you can interact, engage with your friends/ peers and celebs while watching films.
We also want to launch a crowdfunding arm for LiveTree where independent film makers can raise funding for creating their dream project.
What content do you specialise in?
Back catalogue, independent and films that bring about social change. We want to have thought-provoking content that starts conversations.
You’ve already secured some exclusive content deals. What kind of content can people expect to see?
Thought provoking and engaging content that they won’t find anywhere else.
What do you love about the world of start-ups?
That it’s so agile and you can make a difference with just one idea.
What’s your vision for LiveTree?
To make it the go to platform for creatives when they have that wacky or life-changing idea and want to showcase that through film. Also a place for cinema- lovers to engage with one other and start debates and conversations.
And for yourself: where would you like to be in five years’ time?
I would love to produce my own food show and many other shows hopefully- Anthony Bourdain is my hero!
And finally, what three pieces of advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs?
- Always follow your gut and passion.
- Don’t listen to external noise – most people are going to tell you not to start a business and just do something safe.
- Finally be prepared to fail and have sleepless nights and days filled with stress.
You can find out more about LiveTree on their website.
