- Vimeo’s CEO Philip Moyer spoke exclusively with Fortuneabout the company’s launch of Vimeo Streaming. His management strategy—especially around meetings—is key to the launch.
Every meeting at Vimeo starts in an unconventional way: with a story.
And no, workers at the tech company don’t go around sharing what they had for lunch or their weekend plans. Each employee shares a customer story—something that Vimeo’s CEO Philip Moyer tells Fortune has helped completely transform the company.
“We start most meetings with a customer story, or we talk about either something that’s good or something that’s bad that’s happening to a customer,” Moyer says. “We actually have to say the customer’s name, describe who they are, and really taking the company back to listening to the customers.”
The reason? Customers’ insights will tell you exactly what’s right and wrong with your company, he says.
Vimeo isn’t alone in being intentional around meeting time; billionaire Jeff Bezos has also long been known for his policies—like preparing six-page documents and banning PowerPoints—which has helped propel his company into a $2 trillion powerhouse.
“My perfect meeting starts with a crisp document…and a messy meeting,” he said on the Lex Fridman Podcast in late 2023. “I don’t keep to a strict schedule. My meetings often go longer than I plan for them to because I believe in wondering.”
Moyer’s emphasis on human-centered storytelling may be helping transform Vimeo’s direction, too. The business was on a downward spiral last year before Moyer, a Google AI alum, stepped in as CEO in April—replacing Anjali Sud, who was first tapped to lead the company in 2017 at just 33 years old. Now, Moyer tells Fortune, the company is on track for as much as double-digit growth by the end of the year.
Vimeo’s new platform is democratizing streaming services
The company is taking its momentum into new areas. Today, Vimeo is launching Vimeo Streaming—an all-in-one platform for creators to create their own branded streaming service and generate sustainable subscription revenue.
In an exclusive interview with Fortune on the heels of the announcement, Moyer says he hopes to usher in a content “renaissance” by helping creators monetize their work and audience.
“We want to be able to serve you whether or not you get your very first like, whether or not you get someone wanting to buy a single episode from you, an entire collection of episodes, subscribe to you, or if you want to embed in somebody else’s website,” he says.
While Vimeo has secured over 13.8 million active customers willing to pay for content, they still face steep competition against giant YouTube. Still, the company has found success by leaning into engaged paid subscribers versus scale and advertising. Over the last three years alone, creators earned $1 billion, and Moyer says that creators on Vimeo receive more money in their pockets than the “big guys.”
Read more from Fortune
“We actually believe that there’s a lot of individuals that we work with that have their own audiences, that have their own followers,” he says. “We don’t feel like we have to take 45 or 55 cents of every dollar away from a creator, that we can actually serve them at a fraction of the price.”
He points to Martha Stewart TV and Sidemen’s Side+ as examples of big-name content creators who have used Vimeo to create their own streaming services and charge viewers a monthly or yearly subscription to access exclusive content. With Vimeo Streaming, the company hopes any creator, big or small, can make their own service, too, and make a profit.
With a lower barrier to entry in the streaming industry—paired with content creation rising as a dream job—content side hustles may soon be on the horizon for more and more Americans.
The secret to becoming one of the smartest people in your company
Moyer took the reins of Vimeo last year after a long tech career, most recently leading applied AI engineering at Google. However, being head-downs in the emerging tech field was not what elevated him to the top; he says that spending 10–20% of his time in other areas of the business was key to his success. For example, he would advise an engineer to take time to explore something relating to sales or marketing—as you never know how it might help later on.
But above all, with AI technology slowly infiltrating its way into society, understanding that human connection is more important than ever will help you stand out from the crowded pack, Moyer adds.
“Be able to describe how your work impacts the other human, that customer that you serve in everything that you do, and I think you’ll be one of the smartest people in your company,” he says.
