The Egyptian Film Industry Just Got A Social Platform, Clakett, And It’s Raising $300,000
We speak to Kamel Karam, the founders behind Clakett, a social platform connecting the players of the film industry to explore opportunities and discover talents.
A month ago, Clakett found home in app stores; organically attracting hundreds of users without the aid of marketing campaigns. “ What made me think of the idea behind this platform is when I found it very challenging and hard at finding the needed crew, connections, equipment, and location to produce my film,” Clakett’s founder Kamel Karam tells Startup Scene.
Clakett is a social platform that aims at connecting people of the film industry with not only fellow colleagues and potential clients or hires, but also resources, equipment, and locations. “Clakett is going to reshape the film industry,” Karam adds. “It’s almost the only industry that hasn’t turned digital; we are breaking down all barriers in the filmmaking process, making people more connected and the industry more open."
So far, Clakett has a team of two, Karam and his longtime friend Ahmed Mohsen, and for marketing and exposure Karam's fiancé Mariam Adel who is also an experienced Assistant Director has helped with her database of connections in the industry. The app acts like a LinkedIn but narrowed down for actors, filmmakers, directors, video edits, sound engineers, voice over artists, script writers, scenarists, producers, and many other players of the film industry. Before they launch their premium feature and e-commerce module, they want to close their first round of funding, eyeing $300,000. With the investment, they’re going to enhance their idea and launch their renting module; 50 percent of the fund will go to the technology behind the app, 30 percent will go to marketing and business development, 20 percent operations.
“We have known eachother since we were five years old. Ahmed studied Business Administration and worked with Vodafone, then joined Emirates airlines.I graduated from business administration as well, and also studied filmmaking, and worked as a freelancer beside handling Okhtein’s account," he says. Over some burgers in Dubai, they met in July 2016 and Kamel spoke to him about the concept he was working on; Clakett. "I showed him some sketches, business model, and he was like... "I'm in! Let's make it happen!" and He financed phase 1 of Clakett."
Karam and his Dubai-based co-founder Ahmed Mohsen come from a mixture of film and business backgrounds. They want to change the distribution dynamics of film education and therefore the industry as a whole. “The Cinema Institute only accepts eight students in the department of directing every year,” Karam explains. “We want film education to be accessible to all to expose talent.”
Main Image: From left to right, Ahmed Mohsen and Kamel Karam, the co-founders of Clakett.
You can download the app from the following links:
https://play.google.com/
