Shopping bag.

Semaine: So, Tell us the story of MUBI?

Efe: “I love cinema. My background is in technology: I went to MIT and studied computer science and Electrical Engineering. At SAP (the German Software Company), I learned how to build scalable web apps and I started my business career at Goldman Sachs as an investment banker. But I never stopped having a weakness for cinema. That’s the moment in Japan when, all that I knew in life came together with my passion and I saw this amazing opportunity I had to grasp. It almost seems now like that everything that I have done in my life came together and became this ball in front of me. And I could see the goal. I wanted to watch a movie in a cafe in Tokyo. It was 2006. It was Christmas time.

The movie I wanted to see was “In the Mood for Love” by Wong Kar-Wai and there was not a single platform online that allowed me to watch it. I couldn’t believe that in a country that has the third largest movie market in the world, the fastest broadband speed in the world, and a very mobile device-savvy audience, I couldn’t. I thought: “How is that even possible?” So I started looking into it.

Home video entertainment is a 200 billion dollar industry, almost entirely pay TV and DVD and it was obvious, even back in 2006 that the consumer experience was going to shift. But this was early days: that was pre-iPhone, pre-iPad, and smart TV’s were just being introduced. Yet you could clearly see from YouTube that people started watching long format videos online, and they could sit down in front of their laptop for more than an hour. It was going to move. An idea was born at that moment. It was very exciting because I wanted to build something that I personally needed. I guess this is why MUBI’s selection is so distinctive, we want our users to access a particular and differentiated product. It really reflects the ambition which is to create the best destination for cinema. The best destination online to watch, discover and discuss great cinema.

The vision was that in 10 years time anyone from Buenos Aires to Tokyo would think when they are in the mood for a good film: “What’s on MUBI tonight?” It was a very ambitious vision yet it was something something that we could close our eyes and touch. That was the beginning, it was 9 years ago, in 2007. On February 14th, on Valentine’s day, it was the incorporation of MUBI. and we are going to celebrate our 10 year anniversary next year!”

Semaine: Was it hard to decide to leave the corporate life to become an entrepreneur?

Efe: “My father is an entrepreneur and a very successful one, so I grew up with a father who grew an amazing business. I had the feeling, the DNA, I saw how great it was and I learned a lot from him. To be honest, I always thought I would be doing something like this. And at this point I am terminally unemployable. I guess, once you get the taste of building your own thing it’s impossible to go back. I have worked really hard and I never want to work again in my life, and this doesn’t feel like work. I started when I was 31. I’m 40 now and I found what I want to do with my life.”

Semaine: In what way did your skills help you?

Efe: “First of all, I could build it. When you press play on the video it works amazingly, and the reason for that is because I knew how to build this stuff. I needed to have this tech, business and passion for cinema for this to happen. If you don’t know the business, how are you going to raise 20 million dollars to get where we are? It’s not an easy job to raise money.”

Semaine: Can you tell us more about your passion for cinema?

Efe: “My passion for cinema really started in my mid-twenties, when I went to College in Boston. That’s when I started to find myself in the local cinematheque and engaging with this stuff. The French New Wave is really what started to get me into great cinema. But it’s an acquired taste and it took a number of years for me to really get into it. It’s also the time I really got into wine which is my other passion. Wine and cinema. (He laughs – very French we thought.)”

Semaine: Did you always know MUBI was going to work?

Efe: “That’s why entrepreneurship is crazy: if you calculate everything you would never do it. I didn’t know anyone in the film industry and two years later I realised why there was not a single platform in Japan and there were actual structural reasons, the film ecosystem and so on and so forth. You don’t know anything. You just know you need it, you know you can build it and you should just go ahead and do it. All the planning you have, all the guesses you have, all the financials etc. Nothing was right.

When I look back nine years, when I look back to the original the business plans, I realize I had no idea. But what is important is that you believe in it and you have a long term vision. And you believe that you can figure it out. We didn’t have this model but I knew that people were going to watch movies on these devices and I figured out over time the right value proposition, the right messaging, the right product. And you put up an amazing team.”

Semaine: What do you think was the problem online?

Efe: “First of all I think there is way too much content. Nowadays, our time is very limited and valuable. I want to stress one phenomenon which is the paradox of choice. Too much choice is not necessarily a good thing. When you can access any film you want, anytime you want, anywhere you want, the question very quickly becomes: what? Think about your own experience, and how frustrating it is to find something that you want to watch on a platform with thousands of films. Think about your own Netflix experience.

We have spent a lot of time trying to understand how people watch a movie. Turns out the only two way you are going to watch a movie is either you are heavily marketed to it, for example you see Star Wars everywhere and you go watch it. Or, someone that knows you really well says ‘There is this film from Cannes last year that you are going to love. You have to watch it’. So advice from someone you trust. Then you go and watch it.

We want to become that trusted friend to you. We want to represent something. We want to be the arbitrator of taste.”

Semaine: But isn’t the definition of “Good Cinema” very subjective?

Efe: “MUBI is not for everyone and the films that we choose are very subjective and of course we say that it’s great cinema but based on what? So we don’t appeal to everyone but we appeal to a certain audience, a discerning audience that we can really satisfy and it turns out that this audience is bigger than what people think. It is not a niche.

We all have our own guilty pleasure and I actually quite enjoy the big blockbusters. I’m not even necessarily a cinephile. Not like the guys upstairs. (He points to the first floor). If I ask Kurt (one of the programmers) all Kubrick’s movie titles in reversed chronological order, I’m pretty sure he will be able to name them all, that’s a true cinephile. But there are a lot of people like me, not cinephiles, not specialists, who just want to watch good cinema.

Unfortunately, in Hollywood particularly, marketing a film became so expensive: people don’t take risks anymore. Studios use to make 400 titles a year, 10 years ago and now they make 120 titles. They are making bigger and bigger films, with bigger and bigger budgets that appeal to a much wider audience : Fast and Furious 12. (He laughs). Those films make a lot of money which is completely fine but we want to represent something else.”