Ernesto Schmitt

Ernesto Schmitt
Ernesto Schmitt in 2018
Born August 1971 (age 47)
Cincinnati, Ohio, United States
Nationality German/Uruguayan
Occupation Businessman/ entrepreneur

Ernesto Gottfried Schmitt (born August 1971)[1] is a German/Uruguayan entrepreneur and investor based in the United Kingdom. He is co-founder of The Craftory, an investment group for challenger brands in the consumer products space. He is currently the chairman of Fabula AI and Mogees. He was formerly Founder and CEO of Peoplesound, one of the world's first online music companies, and Silverscreen, the chain of movie stores. Later he was CEO of Beamly and DriveTribe

Early life & education

Schmitt grew up in Belgium and Mexico.[2][1] His father was from Germany, and his mother from Uruguay.[2]

Schmitt graduated top of Cambridge for engineering and holds a Master of the Arts from Cambridge (BA/MA) and a Master of Business Administration (MBA), with distinction from INSEAD of which he graduated in the top 1% of the class.[3]

Peoplesound

Schmitt founded Peoplesound, an online music store and streaming service, in 1999 and ran it until 2001.[2] Peoplesound was one of the earliest platforms for digital music in the world. The business focused on observing user behaviour around their engagement with music to help the music industry better understand and target consumers. The business was sold in 2001 to Vitaminic SPA.[4]

He had also worked for Boston Consulting Group for four years prior to Peoplesound, for DSG International plc as its group development director, and for Tesco between 2006 and 2008 as its group ordering director.[3][5][2]

Silverscreen

From 2003 to 2006 he founded and ran the Silverscreen chain of movie stores.[3][5]

Beamly & Zeebox

In April 2011 Schmitt founded the Zeebox second screen service, later renamed Beamly, along with Anthony Rose who had previously headed up the BBC iPlayer project between 2007 and 2011.[6][7] Beamly was acquired by Coty Inc in October 2015.

EMI

Schmitt previously worked for EMI Music twice, first from 2001 to 2002 as vice-president of strategy and business development.[5] And then again as President of EMI Music's catalogue division and President of Global Marketing, starting in December 2008 and reporting to Elio Leoni Sceti.[3][5][6]

Drivetribe

Schmitt was also the CEO and Co-Founder, along with Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May of the motoring website DriveTribe[8] It was founded in late 2015 as a next-generation social media platform for cars, it raised $5.5M in a Series A round led by Breyer Capital along with European investor Atomico and others. The company claimed to use machine learning to tailor content for the most interested audiences, and to trial different headlines to maximise engagement via social media.[9][10]

In mid-December 2015 Jeremy Clarkson stated to Jeremy Paxman of the Financial Times in reference to W. Chump & Sons that "serious business folk who want to be in on what looks set to be a roaring success will have to carry business cards bearing their name and rank in the hierarchy of, for example, W Chump and Sons (mugs and T-shirts)".[11] One week later on 23 December 2015, W. Chump & Sons (Mugs and T-shirts) (company number 09928481) was incorporated made up of Schmitt, plus Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, James May and Andy Wilman.[12]

The Craftory

In early 2018, Schmitt founded The Craftory, an investment house for consumer product challenger brand[13] along with Elio Leoni Sceti, The Craftory invests in owner-operated companies with annual revenues of more than $10m, in sectors including beauty, health, food, beverages and household products. It is the first investment group to focus on growing challenger brands across the consumer packaged goods space.[13][14]

Schmitt and co-founder Elio Leoni Sceti launched The Craftory with $300m in investment capital, including $60m from Spice Private Equity.[15]

Personal life

He has two children, who are a quarter French, Sri Lankan, German and Uruguayan.[16]

References

  1. 1 2 Levy, Katherine (28 June 2012). "Zeebox on a mission to revolutionise TV viewing". Campaign. Retrieved 30 December 2015. Background: Half-German, half-Uruguayan, born in the US, grew up in Belgium and Mexico.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Tagliabue, John (5 May 2000). "Sprechen Sie Technology?; Europeans Try to Relax Borders for Skilled Workers". The New York Times. Paris. Retrieved 30 December 2015. Schmitt, 28, set up Peoplesound.com, a London company that sells music over the Internet … grew up in Belgium, the son of a Uruguayan mother and German father, … gave up the comfort of a secure job at the Boston Consulting Group
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Ernesto Schmitt, CEO & co-founder, Zeebox" (Changing Media Summit: Speakers 2012). The Guardian. 5 December 2011. Retrieved 30 December 2015.
  4. ↑ "Vitaminic" (Factfile). Crunchbase. 3 June 2018. Retrieved 3 June 2018. The Headquarter was based in Italy and after the Ipo in 2000 on the Italian Stock Exchange it acquired companies in UK ( Peoplesound)
  5. 1 2 3 4 "EMI Music Appoints Ernesto Schmitt as President, Catalogue" (Press release). 6 November 2008. appointed Ernesto Schmitt as president of its catalogue business, reporting to Elio Leoni-Sceti, EMI Music's chief executive. He will join EMI next month. … DSG International, … group development director. From 2006 to 2008, he worked at Tesco as group ordering director, … Prior to that he was joint chief executive and founder of Silverscreen, … From 2001 to 2002 Schmitt was EMI Group's senior vice president of strategy and business development. Prior to that he founded peoplesound.com, … began his career at Boston Consulting Group … for four years.
  6. 1 2 Kiss, Jemima (3 February 2013). "Zeebox founder and former iPlayer boss Anthony Rose on the future of TV". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 December 2015.
  7. ↑ "BBC iPlayer's Rose returns with social TV app Zeebox" (Blog). Financial Times. 31 October 2011. Retrieved 30 December 2015. Mr Rose co-founded Zeebox in April with Ernesto Schmitt, a serial entrepreneur who has also worked at EMI, DSG and Tesco. The company raised £5m in venture funding from undisclosed investors.
  8. ↑ "Ernesto Schmitt's Email". rocketreach. RocketReach.
  9. ↑ Times, Financial (17 August 2016). "Ex-Top Gear host Clarkson's DriveTribe raises $5.5m". The FT. Retrieved 2 June 2018.
  10. ↑ Green, Harriet (13 February 2017). "DriveTribe co-founders Richard Hammond and Ernesto Schmitt talk dating, driverless cars and excluding Jeremy Clarkson from music ventures". City AM. Retrieved 2 June 2018.
  11. ↑ Paxman, Jeremy (18 December 2015). "Lunch with the FT: Jeremy Clarkson". Financial Times. Retrieved 23 December 2015. serious business folk who want to be in on what looks set to be a roaring success will have to carry business cards bearing their name and rank in the hierarchy of, for example, "W Chump and Sons (mugs and T-shirts)" .
  12. ↑ "W. Chump & Sons (Mugs & T-Shirts) Limited". 23 December 2015. Retrieved 23 December 2015. Company number 09928481
  13. 1 2 "The Craftory looks to back upstarts in fight against consumer giants". FT.com. The Financial Times Group Ltd. Retrieved 23 May 2018.
  14. ↑ White, Lucy (14 May 2018). "New 'hipster' investment firm The Craftory is ploughing $300m into consumer brands challenging conglomerate giants". CityAm.com.
  15. ↑ Farman, Madeleine (2018-05-15). "Spice commits $60m to new investment house The Craftory – Real Deals". Real Deals. Retrieved 2018-05-23.
  16. ↑ Levy, Katherine (13 February 2017). "Zeebox on a mission to revolutionise TV viewing". Campaign. Retrieved 28 June 2012.
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