How to create an “extended family” of partners and grow your business

We’ve uncovered plenty of stories these last few months looking at how people are using the cloud to bring teams together, to help them create better work, to help them grow their businesses faster. And whether that’s by connecting offices across the world, coming together during events, or for very specific content projects, one thing we’ve learned is that those in the creative industries thrive on the ability to bring talent together, and work towards shared goals, regardless of location.

We’ve already heard from production company Fire Without Smoke, they’re using Dropbox to employ only the best talent, wherever they are in the world.  More recently, we were also able to tell the story of how one single Dropbox link brought Garsington Opera to a much wider audience, and we found out about a ground-breaking collaboration between a German filmmaker and Nairobi-based Ginger Ink. Not to mention One Fine Day Films, the band of mothers using the cloud to bring women back into filmmaking.

So, it comes as no surprise then that if you’re a content production company, creating TV documentaries, commercials, branded content, PR events and editorial features for top ranked companies all over the world, the cloud has a lot to offer.

Alistair Weaver, CEO and Founder of Gaucho Productions is proof of that. He’s using Dropbox to create a huge “extended family” of associates to produce content for clients all over the world.

He set up Gaucho Productions around a decade ago with a handful of talented people, and has kept to that ethos ever since.  “We are able to create a huge variety of work from our office in London, by forming teams all over the world, connected through shared folders on Dropbox.  We think of ourselves as a global company because of the huge network of people we work with.  Being able to employ people with the right skills for each project is vital, and helps us deliver the variety of work that we do.  For instance, we’ve recently completed projects involving Virtual Reality, CGI, documentary making, events and so on – and each of these requires a distinctly different skillset.”

In the first few years of Gaucho Productions, Alistair admits that he tried building his own branded file sharing platform.  “In those days, there was an expectation that if you were working with big clients you needed that level of professionalism and brand identity, but things quickly changed. Being able to partner with a strong, reputable brand like Dropbox and being able to leave that side of the business to the experts has really helped us focus on what’s important,” he says.

One of the reasons Alistair chose Dropbox is that nearly all the companies he’s working with – regardless of their size – trust that Dropbox is keeping their content safe and secure. “Working across Europe and the rest of the world is easy with Dropbox as it’s a brand all of our customers are familiar with, and are happy to use. That’s the case whether we are working on projects with a global car brand or a boutique travel company.”

With the tech side now taken care of, Alistair says Gaucho Productions has found success creating an “extended family” of associates all over the world – communicating on the cloud.

He says, “All these advances in cloud services has meant our business is more agile, flexible and responsive than ever before.  We think nothing of transferring huge files – like the 10GB VR films we made for a company in LA earlier this year – thousands of miles, from shoot location to our London office for editing, to the client.”

Alistair finished by saying: “We don’t want to do IT, we’re not an IT company, it takes us away from what we do best. So just like people trust us to deliver exceptional storytelling, we trust Dropbox to deliver exceptional digital solutions.”

To find out more about this project and the variety of projects the team at Gaucho Productions are working on, click here.