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The market gap that creative business founder Gabriel Isserlis is working to fill has been staring many in the face for years. Those working in the creator sector want nothing more than to bring their big ideas to life and yet so much of their time is eaten up by tasks that have nothing to do with being creative. If this situation sounds a little close to home, then fear not – Isserlis has a plan to realign this work-business-balance, starting with SuperScout.
“I have a background in the creative industries and technology,” explains Isserlis, talking us through the career history that led him to his current company. After studying filmmaking and computer programming at university, he spent time dabbling in a range of creative mediums from photography and film, to music, theater and events – noticing the same problem in each. “People want to be creative but spend an enormous amount of time doing admin and not being able to be creative. What if we could build technology that reduces admin and gives creative people more time to create?”
The end result was SuperScout, a digital service that uses artificial intelligence tools to take the legwork out of finding locations for film and TV projects. The idea was based on Tutti, Isserlis’s previous business which styled itself as an AirBNB for creative spaces used for film shoots, photo shoots and rehearsals. However, by digging a little deeper into this niche, he found he could create something that better served the production sector.
“It turns out that around 80% of the Location Managers in Europe and the Middle East use Dropbox, while maybe 60-80% in the United States use something called SmugMug, which is a photography portfolio website. Neither are built for the sector,” explains Isserlis, detailing information gleaned from conversations with those working in locations on how they source their spots. “We discovered that no one has built software for Loctation Managers and production companies to help them with locations – everyone just uses something that kind of works.”
Identifying a new niche, Isserlis simply built upon what he already had with Tutti, adding some subtle AI features to help things run more intuitively. A basic prototype of SuperScout debuted at the Berlin Film Festival in early 2024 and was a quick hit with users – but how does it work?
“SuperScout is for a location manager to organise their own private database of locations,” explains Isserlis. “They simply upload photos like they would to any other software, but they also add an address. Every image is automatically tagged with AI which enables location managers to search something like ‘Kitchen’ and instantly view every kitchen they’ve ever uploaded. The search looks like AirBnB with locations on the left and map on the right,” he says. “If they zoom in on Manchester on the map, they’re just looking at kitchens in Manchester. It’s that simple.”
To do the same thing in previous systems would be a laborious process full of scrolling and location elimination. “It’s estimated that people spend around 400 hours a year on the organization and searching locations on their systems. We remove the organization and cut the searching into seconds or minutes.”
The tool has already seen success. Earlier this summer, Isserlis won a Digital Catapult grant to develop a supporting iOS app for SuperScout. Plus, by working with our Creative Enterprise Investment Readiness scheme, he’s further catalyzing his company’s chances of wider industry success.
“In order to build out this product, we need money which is why we applied for the Investment Readiness programme,” says Isserlis. “There are lots of challenges. We’re taking existing technologies but applying them in a new way and that always comes with a lot of trickiness,” he says. “There’s a lot of work that needs to be done to understand users and exactly how we can apply all of this amazing technology in a way that’s really helpful to them.”
Looking ahead, Isserlis’s ultimate goal is for SuperScout to offer a service that’s more prescriptive, “Allowing Location Managers to be highly specific with their requests and instantly highlight the perfect locations across their database, no matter when or how they saved them. “We’re not close to being able to do that right now and we’ll need more money to achieve that,” he reasons, “but that’s part of the reason why we’re involved with the Investment Readiness programme because one of the trickiest things for companies like ours is finding people who understand the potential of this opportunity. Creative UK has already introduced me to people who have opened doors, which is great.”
While pitching and selling your concept to investors forms a large part of the scheme’s remit, Isserlis has also found other, more unexpected opportunities. “The software we’re building is useful to some of our cohort members so not only are we building up how we pitch and connect to potential investors but we’re also figuring out how we can pitch to other potential users,” he smiles. “The mentoring has been useful for figuring out how to negotiate and get feedback on concepts,” adds Isserlis. “It’s nice having access to a critical third party and someone who doesn’t have skin in the game.”
As he works his way through the programme, Isserlis would love to see the technology that’s powering SuperScout eventually rolled out to all corners of the creative sector. “That’s going to continue to be our end goal,” he tells us. “SuperScout is one way we’re doing that but it’s not the be-all-end-all. There are lots of different workflows within the creator sector that are decades old and could do with a tech upgrade. Given I deeply understand both creative needs as well as technology, I believe I’m uniquely positioned to achieve this,” he says. “Our goal as a company is to use technology, including AI, to reduce admin and enhance creativity to lead humans to the creative part of their work – not replace human creativity.”
Words and interview by Simon Bland