Octane5

Questions answered by Mike Dunn, Co-President.

Tell us some background to your business – when you began, what led you into this sector etc as well as an idea of staff and offices that you have?

My brother Matt and I started Octane5 back in 2009 after a long history of running another software and security marks company. We wanted to build a company from the ground up that would completely support the needs of licensing management for a wide variety of licensors. In the early days, it was just Matt and I spending much of our days working at a Starbucks in the morning and a sports bar in the afternoon because both had free wifi and outlets! Today our team numbers more than 40 with offices in Atlanta, London, Los Angeles and Indianapolis.

Can you give us some information about the services that you offer in terms of contract management, product approvals, contract approvals and royalty reports?

To build the vision of our service portfolio in those early days, we coined the term ‘contract to consumer licensing lifecycle management’ and that vision is still very true today. We want to support licensors from the time they start contract discussions with a licensee until the consumer interacts with the product at point of sale. So yes, we have contract workflow and management, digital asset management, product approvals, royalties/forecasting but much more. We also help brands manage their audits, protect their brands and talk to their consumers. We help brands do the back office work they are simply not staffed to perform.

What other services does your system offer eg audit tracking, data management?

One of the things that makes Octane5 unique is our team of licensing professionals and the great collaborative relationship we have with our client brands. Through both of these key stakeholders we’ve continued to build out additional features that go far beyond the basic licensing systems in the marketplace with other providers. One of those features is our audit management tool which provides the ability for auditors to upload their docs and the brand to review and manage corrective actions on an ongoing basis. Another feature unique to BrandComply is our licensee scorecard. We’ve streamlined and automated the hard work of doing licensee reviews and made

it customizable for each brand owner. This is some of the magic that comes from having a team of licensing professionals!

In addition to software, you offer brand protection programs. Why did you decide to get into brand protection?

We have long been concerned with helping brands protect their IP. In fact, Matt and I are patent holders on brand protection technologies going back to 2005. While counterfeiting is always an important issue, it’s really exploded recently due to Covid 19. The criminals are taking advantage of the shift to online shopping and the need for critical supplies and it’s a dangerous combination. Europol recently released a study speaking to this growth, and underlining that counterfeiting is not a victimless crime. In fact, many may not realize that counterfeiters aren’t small time operators – most are large enterprises and they use their illegal profits to fund terrorism, slavery and other human rights violations. It’s nasty business that the average shopper doesn’t think about when buying a ‘harmless’ knockoff Gucci bag.

So how does your solution help?

Traditionally, Licensors have taken half-steps to protect their brands. Maybe they’ll do some online enforcement, maybe a few local activities, or leave it up to their licensees. We believe that licensors need a proactive approach to protecting their brand that they implement across all licensees so there is a consistent means for consumer to identify legitimate products. We’re talking about a high security hang tag or label that consumers can identify. At Octane5, we leverage the same security features found in the pound banknote and use in hang tags and labels specifically for the licensing industry. Onto this secure product, we’ve layered unique QR codes that consumers can scan to validate the product and learn more about the brand. So we are delivering both a brand protection platform and a way for the licensor to communicate with and learn from their consumer

What kind of impact has the coronavirus pandemic had on your business?

Well as a technology company, we were already very well suited for a mobile workforce. We made the decision on a Friday to close our offices, and we were up and running as usual on Monday morning. We had been using video web meetings for years for client meetings/ trainings so all that continued smoothly. We have been approached by a number of brands who had been considering our technology now realizing that they really need to move forward into the 21st century and they simply can’t wait any longer to move from an offline solution, or an under-powered older software suite.

Technology changes continuously. How do your systems guarantee to keep up to date with the latest available technology?

We spend an incredible amount of time constantly assessing the needs of licensors. This is where our team of licensing professionals and our relationship with our clients is critical. We are constantly updating BrandComply based on the needs of the market and our assessment of technology trends. For example, we have an iOS app – no one else in our space has made that investment. Still, we released a brand new, even more powerful version of the app this year because we knew we could deliver even more power into our clients handsets. So we’re not looking at technology for the sake of technology, but how can we facilitate our brand owners getting better at running their business. This approach allows us to stay at the forefront of the licensing software industry and our clients really appreciate this approach.

What are the unique selling points of your system that you believe make it stand out from others in the market?

What is unique today is what made us unique when we started – contract to consumer licensing lifecycle management. We continue to expand on the tools and services, but the concept remains the same. Others talk about it, but no one else is doing it. We do what is says on the tin! This will continue to be our core principle as we go forward which I think will continue to serve us, and our clients, very well indeed.

From left to right: Jim Kucia, EVP Sales; Denise Penn, Director EMEA; Matt Dunn, Co-President, CTO; Mike Dunn, Co-President, CMO