We were lucky to catch up with Kieanji Williams recently and have shared our conversation below.

Kieanji, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

March 2020, I was an apprentice are my tech job and I hadn’t been given any tasks for days; I was getting bored of listening to music and watching YouTube videos. That week I had been invited to a screening of an indie film but, couldn’t attend due to a schedule conflict. I was bummed and went to work the next day knowing I would still not have any new tasks. I remember this free ad-supported streaming service called, “Pluto TV” that I hadn’t been on for years and during my browsing it was a whole lot of nothing but older and already watched content. That’s when a lightbulb went off – “What if there was a linear streaming service like this but independent films and webseries only?” I was just invited to that screening and when I asked the people that attended, they didn’t know what platform it was on. I got to work on a business plan. It didn’t take long for me to come up with business model because I am creating a service to empower and promote independent filmmakers becoming their own distributor. I had to research what kind of platform Pluto TV was and competitors. I learned the over-the-top (OTT) market and the pain points that independent fimmakers have expressed. I was doing a formal crack down of the film industry and the disadvantages indie filmmakers faced being that 94.3% of films released annually in the US are indie film yet the 5.7% coming from Hollywood gets more attention.

The naming process was a struggle because I didn’t want to use the cliche, “Cine” , “Indie” or “Flix” in the name. So when in doubt, turn to the periodic table. And there, my eyes spotted the nobal gas column. He, Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe, Rn. I dropped Helium (He) and Radon(Rn) and removed the second letters which spell NAKX. The name is actually a metaphor. Nobel gasses when contained are invisible and when electricity passes through is when this unique colorful bright bolt of electricity reveals. Kinda like how indie filmmakers have unique stories that go under-recognized so my goal is to make Nakx the platform that allows their stories to become visible to a mainstream audience.

Kieanji, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I grew up always desiring to do something in the creative.entertainment industry. Ballet, modeling, pagents, stage plays, and improv acting. I’ve mostly been drawn to the film industry as I was always around industry folks since my mother was a hairstylist so I could go to shows with her. Nakx is the 1st and only OTT linear streaming service that that allows filmmakers to directly self-distribute their films without a distributor. Indie filmmakers are businesses owners and making films is more business than play. It’s evident that gatekeepers do not want the “Little Guys” have too much control over their own work and copyrights so instead of looping filmmakers in into the process, they are expected to work with distributors with low paying quarterly results, lose their ownership, and/or their ideas stolen. We are non-exclusive and open to genres and stories Hollywood typically rejects. Independent filmmakers produce more films than mega corporation annually but, where do they go? Nakx, invites filmmakers to learn their power in this tough industry and not seek validation from Hollywood but the millions of viewers that now will have the opportunity to watch their work with easier accessibility.

Can you share one of your favorite marketing or sales stories?

I was on Facebook scrolling through local independent film groups, when I went to my timeline, I seen an ad for this reality webseries called, The Blox, hosted by MTV’s vetern competitive game show champion, Wes Bergmann. I was casted for season 5 and about 60 companies flew out to Kansas City to compete in a week long of course material that would be converted into challenges so we can put our new found knowledge to the test. The businesses with the most points will win funding for their company. At the time of filming I was still in the development stage but right now my service is completed in I wanted to give potential partners and customers insight of what Nakx is and the importance of having indie film visiblity in the mainstream. I don’t know when this article will release so I can’t spill the beans because some very juice stuff happens. Season 5 of The Blox can be viewed on The Blox mobile app or on BetaBlox Facebook page.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

When I 1st got this idea, I pitched it to my mother and family members. My mother invested $10,000 and I went off to look for a web development team for my budget using Upwork. It was tough looking for the right developers to handle the task because my business model is specifically tailorted to the OTT market; I had finally found an agency within my budget. I did crowdfunding campaign and my family and friends were able to supply about $2,000 more for development. The rest is being bootstapped by myself.

Contact Info:

• Website: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nakxtv/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nakx.tv
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kieanji-williams-5b9048120/
• Other: Season 5 of The Blox: https://www.facebook.com/BetaBlox/videos

Image Credits
BetaBlox (The Blox, season 5)