Osmek CEO Matt McCloskey and User Experience Officer Stu Smith created a custom cloud-based content management system (CMS) out of sheer necessity. After six years of using it internally, they’re releasing it as a public product. Osmek seeks to simplify publishing (compared to, say, WordPress). It's free to try, and plans cost between $9 and $149 a month.
Austin Post: First off, for our readers who aren’t tech savvy, what is a CMS?
Matt McCloskey: It stands for Content Management System. Basically, it allows someone without any technical skills to update their content in a Web application, iPhone app, blog or anywhere content is consumed. They’re not absolutely necessary -- if you can code an HTML or PHP website, you could update content that way, but it’s really inconvenient. We’re really tech savvy guys over here, but we don’t want to have to make a code change in order to update the text on a webpage. We use a CMS for all our data as well.
Austin Post: How is using Osmek different from uploading a blog post in WordPress or using some other familiar content management system?
Stu Smith: It’s fundamentally different. WordPress is a framework you install on your server. Osmek uses an API to deliver content to your website and that gives us a lot of flexibility. WordPress offers everything including the kitchen sink on the back end whereas Osmek has a very tailored back end depending on what kind of content your site uses. In a lot of ways, we make it more simple for less tech-savvy people to use it for more complex tasks. WordPress is great for a blog, but if you have more complex content, like a feature-rich website, something like WordPress would actually be more complicated than Osmek because we tailor the back end to the needs of the user. We take away all the unnecessary features that confuse non-tech users.
Matt McCloskey: WordPress is an open source application, so it’s meant to be all things to all people. If you have a WordPress site, it can be overwhelming when someone who just needs to update a blog post or add a new link is staring at all the technical details of the data screen.
Osmek takes the opposite approach. We start with nothing, then add features in depending on what the user needs. If you want to post a blog post when you login, you would only see the text entry field and information relevant to the task at hand. All the configuration stuff would only be seen by the person who actually deals with the back end. We make it less technical and more user intuitive.
Osmek entry forms are clean and crisp.
Austin Post: In addition to familiar things like blog posts, you said Osmek can be used for mobile apps. How do app developers use a CMS and how can yours help them?
Matt McCloskey: Traditionally, a content management system has a framework running on a server, but that doesn’t work with an app. You need something that downloads content onto a user’s handset. We’re situated in the cloud, so we can push content out anywhere.
Austin Post: What inspired the two of you to start Osmek?
Matt McCloskey: We had a need for it internally. We both run Web design / development firms and we were displeased with the existing CMS options both from the development standpoint and from the end product for our users. We had customers who were so confused by their CMS, instead of doing their own updates they’ll call us up and ask us to do it. We didn’t need to spend our time doing little edits for them, so we came up with a super simple CMS. We used it internally for our own clients for about three years then realized this was a pain a lot of people had. We never set out to start a CMS business, but any time you have a personal need that leads you to develop a product, it’s likely a lot of other people will have that same need.
Austin Post: You have a lean, four person team, but is Osmek profitable enough for the four of you to make a living?
Matt McCloskey: Yes, we are profitable. In fact, it’s enough for us to afford our office on Sixth and Trinity in the Dirty Sixth area. We thrive on being around one another, being in the same space when we’re creating something.
Stu Smith: We also own other businesses. I got into Osmek as a client. I’d been running the gamut of WordPress, Drupal, you name it. Osmek changed my business for the better. Now, it’s a humonguous part of Sputnik, my business, and the client services I’m able to provide.
Matt McCloskey: Chemso, which is the reverse of Osmek, was my original company. I still run it and another company called White Boot which is a product that builds websites for photographers and designers. It’s completely built out on top of Osmek.
Austin Post: Did either of you serial entrepreneurs start out as tech professionals?
Matt McCloskey: No. I got a B.A. in music and picked up Web design as a geek side hobby. I’m a completely Google-taught developer.
Stu Smith: I was also a professional musician for a number of years. I picked up some Web design as a way to supplement income, and ended up doing it professionally for the last six or seven years.
Austin Post: That’s a very Austin story. A lot of professional musicians here pay the bills with graphic design or Web design.
Matt McCloskey: Sure, and it can be a great hobby, but if you’re going to succeed, you have to be able to keep up in the tech world, which means you have to have a passion for it. If you’re not reading all the time, if you’re not hungry to learn more, you can’t really succeed.
Austin Post: Are a lot of musicians that hungry to learn about tech?
Matt McCloskey: The creative skills are more related than a lot of people think.
Austin Post: How would you describe the corporate culture you’re trying to create at Osmek?
Matt McCloskey: Well, it’s only the four of us, so every Friday we go down to Fado on 4th and Lavaca. We drink Guinness and eat and talk about how to take over the world.
Austin Post: What are you looking forward to for the future of Osmek?
Stu Smith: On the heels of this relaunch, I think we’re really anxious to see where the consumer version goes. We’re really curious to see it go from being our baby we use with our own internal clients to seeing how other developers take it and use it for their client bases. It’s really exciting.
Matt McCloskey: I can’t wait to see what people do with it. We’ve put our baby out into the world and we’re excited to see where she leads us.