Interview with Simon Berg, CEO of Ceros
Simon Berg is the CEO of Ceros, an intriguing startup, whose brand marketing platform gives customers the tools to create, manage and deliver engaging, brand experiences across all modern devices and channels: web, tablet, mobile and social. All of this is accomplished in the cloud and with no need for any coding.
Investors in Ceros include Greycroft, Fuse, Western Technology Investment, Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz and Mark Cuban.
Berg’s career path has been a fascinating one. He has risen from being a self-proclaimed ‘go-fer,’ to becoming the CEO of several companies. In business since his mid-teens, Berg’s entrepreneur spirit has taken him not just to the CEO level, but clear across the Atlantic.
You got your start with (Marketing Firm) Group FMG. What was it like working your way up the ladder?
The biggest challenge was being the son of the boss. Everyone knew that I got the opportunity because I was the son of the boss. I had to do twice as much as everybody, just to be accepted. Everyone I worked with saw me as this kid with a silver spoon in my mouth. I hated that! Fact was, I was a kid and I did have a lot to learn about dealing with people. After two weeks on the job, my older brother, who also worked there, told me “everybody hates you.” That’s really hard when you’re still a teenager.
But the lessons I learned there still stick with me: the dynamics of human beings, the importance of what you say in front of others. The main thing, though, was that I felt like I always had to prove myself. That’s something that motivates me to this day.
Excuse me for cyberstalking, but I couldn’t help but notice that your first job title at Group FMG was, “Tea Boy & General dogs body.” Could you break down your duties when you held that title?
First of all, I made it my business to make the worst tea possible so I wouldn’t get asked again. I wanted to be the guy who held the “tea boy” title for the shortest time. Oh, another part of the job was being turned upside down and thrown into a giant trash can. Then there was the job of being target practice for the production guys who would hit me with giant balls of cellophane. Finally, I learned to get everybody’s lunch order correct. I learned that hungry people are angry people.
You got your start in the creative department at FMG. Do you think that your background in design affects your style of leadership?
Absolutely. In the business I’m in now, understanding creativity, the creative process and the way creative people think and work is essential. I don’t have your typical CEO background. I was the worst student in the world. Honestly. I flunked virtually every class I took. But the two classes I passed, art and technology, I got A pluses. Those things I know!
Ceros is all about creating tools that empower creative people to do their best work without any constraints of technology. Working with engineers, I know the engineering process is remarkably creative when it’s being done at a high level. We’re all about bridging the gap between art and science.
What would you say your overall goal was in founding your latest venture, Ceros?
Simply put, proving it could be done. Let me explain. We’ve created something amazing from nothing. Parts of the Ceros platform have technologies that just didn’t exist before. Creating is what makes me tick. Creating is what drives me.
How does Ceros change the game for content creators?
It empowers brands to create richer, more engaging brand experiences and tell better stories. We are trying to do for design what Google Docs did for written content. We have real time collaborative tools for designers that revolutionizes that way designs are created. What designers love about Ceros is that it allows them to create highly interactive designs, publish them to the web, to tablets, to smartphones and to social media without the need for a single line of code. This is not only a time saver, it’s liberating.
What’s it like collaborating with [Crowd Fusion Founder] Brian Alvey?
It’s challenging, but in a good way. When you bring two CEOs together, there’s a feeling out process. We worked hard at it. Our biggest challenge was to figure out our respective strengths and weaknesses and figure out the best way to exploit our strengths. What we’ve found is that his talents are best utilized in an advisory and evangelical role. Obviously, he is a major figure in the industry and much of his current involvement is in his capacity as a thought leader.
At the end of the day, my job was to bring the two companies together from across an ocean. There were cultures to merge, teams to build, processes to create. I think we’ve managed to do this very successfully.
Did Ceros’ acquisition by Crowd Fusion change the way you did business? If so, how?
Yes! First I figured out that I could living and working in America, as cliche as it may sound, forces you to take your game to the next level. I’ve learned there’s a lot of truth on the notion that the only thing that can hold you back in America is a lack of desire, a lack of discipline and a lack of ambition.
On a day-to-day level, maybe the biggest change is cursing a bit less in the workplace. I found out quickly it’s not nearly as acceptable on this side of the pond!
What’s the most common branding mistake you wish marketers would stop making?
They continue to talk at their customers and not with them. There’s no place for arrogance in the modern business climate.
What’s the biggest way that marketing has changed over the past five years?
It used to be “buyer beware.” Now it’s “seller beware.” There has been a huge shift in power. Power is almost entirely in the hands of the buyer now. If you don’t understand your buyer, listen to your buyer and serve the needs and interests of your buyer you are going to fail and fail miserably.
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