Submittable: Submission Management Made Simple

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Michael FitzGerald, Co-Founder & CEO, SubmittableMichael FitzGerald, Co-Founder & CEO
The modern-day publishing process is laborious in itself, and made even more complicated by today’s rapidly increasing number of content creators, who flood a publisher’s inboxes with their creations.

Submittable was established to streamline the submission and review process for publishers. The platform’s goal is to deliver effortless connectivity and full transparency when a publisher works with writers to effectively accept, review, and publish mutually beneficial content.

In an interview with CIO Applications, Michael FitzGerald, co-founder and CEO of Submittable, discusses his company’s inception, growth, and vision to deliver comprehensive submission and application review management solutions for organizations across multiple industries

Could you provide a brief history and overview of your company?

The company’s inception is credited to the problems that two of my partners and I faced when trying to get our content published. While computer engineering was what got us together at our day job, we were moonlighting as an author, filmmaker, and musician.

Drawing from personal experience, after writing my debut novel, the first thing I realized was that a writer has to figure out how they are going to sell their work while successfully tackling a lot of rejection in the process.

Submittable’s goal is to deliver effortless connectivity and full transparency when a publisher works with a writer to effectively accept, review, and publish mutually beneficial content

To help curb this obstacle for publishers and writers alike, we initially created a platform where content creators could upload and submit their manuscripts. Following which, publishers could edit and review the project and rate it accordingly. Today, Submittable is a comprehensive submission and review platform.

How has Submittable’s submission and review platform evolved over the years?

Initially, the platform allowed writers to share Word files through the cloud, helping users to submit, access, and edit various text document files. It was a success, as we were among the very few companies that focused on innovation for the publishing industry. And, over the years, we continued to add more features like multi-stage reviewing and contextual referencing to the application, and we established an efficient review system for our customers.

Based on this initial success, our company gained traction in many other verticals. AT&T, The New Yorker, and NBCUniversal are a few enterprises— from varied industries—currently utilizing the Submittable platform to improve their process for reviewing incoming digital content and large media-intensive applications. Today, our product supports over 73 file types that transcode any data into web-friendly versions for reviewers in an organization.

Overall, Submittable is an enterprise-grade product. When we sign on a new customer, they undergo a full-fledged onboarding process.

We work with them comprehensively to understand their needs and customize the platform according to their workflow.

Could you cite a few case studies to further elucidate on your platform’s capabilities?

One of our biggest clients is NBCUniversal. The television network required a submission management platform for its various talent infusion programs, which aim at providing a wide range of opportunities to emerging talents in the entertainment field. They’ve received over 9,600 submissions for seven innovative programs.

After we implemented Submittable into the company’s workflow, the platform empowered users to collect and review high volumes of applications and digital content at a significantly faster rate. Additionally, NBC used Submittable to facilitate the acceptance of fellowship showcase workshops that helped the mass media company to discover the next generation of talent. This also simplified the process of inviting external evaluators to review the applications through the cloud.

What does the future hold for your company?

This year, our company has been growing at over 100 percent, and we’re expecting the same to continue for the next 12-18 months. Our two main priorities are doubling the staff’s headcount and generating new revenue streams. We already have visibility in numerous verticals, helping organizations attract the top talent. This not only helps C-suite executives recruit the most promising applicants but also helps them establish a fair, competitive marketplace for upcoming content creators. Submittable is the platform you go to when intending to create, or search for, various creative opportunities.

- Joe Phillip
    October 11, 2019

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