Three-and-a-half year-old Switch Video can juice up your web site or presentation with a custom animated video they will develop with you over a five to eight week process.  The company’s website claims it has produced 300 such videos for clients in 14 countries and in seven languages from its offices in San Francisco, California, USA and Collingwood, Ontario, Canada.  Over a five-phase routine, the team collaborates with its clients – using online tools – to discover the point its client is trying to make, develop a script and storyboard, then deliver the final video.

CEO and founder, Andrew Angus, gives credit to his mother for much of the company’s existence.  A cognitive psychologist by background, she gave Andrew “every single block test as a kid you can take,” but never shared the results with him.  However, the exposure made him acutely aware of his ability “to be able to analyze information and make decisions effectively and quickly,” he says.  It also led him to conclude that “…most of the [entrepreneurial] game is an emotional one of keeping your head on straight, believing in yourself and driving on through with that element of rational decision-making at the same time,” he summarizes.  His mother also believes in him, to the tune of hocking her home for the company.  Andrew’s “Seven hundred and eight thousand dollar debt” is constantly on his mind.  He feels he is driven to success not only to raise his children and be a good role model, but to everyone involved in his company.  “…making sure that what I do every day contributes to keeping the company on track and the drive that brings to me and the length I will go to make sure we are successful is huge.”

And huge also describes his goal, “We will be a billion dollar company in ten years,” he states confidently.  Currently, the company is developing a video analytics platform which Google or Facebook will need, he is certain, as a tool to register effectiveness in the videos they are delivering.  He seems to have the formula to get there as well, “Entrepreneurship is an addiction, and I am totally addicted to increasing my risk…every time I increase my risk I learn more and more.”  Some addictions can be healthy.