This story appears in the
August 2005 issue of
Entrepreneur.
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For consumers, upgrading from VHS to DVD simply meant investing
in a new machine. For Miami, Florida-based MTI Home Video, an
independent film studio that produced VHS tapes, it meant revamping
their entire business.
As they watched competitors fall by the wayside, founder Larry
Brahms, 55, and his wife and vice president, Claudia, 38,
persevered with patience and a positive attitude that saved MTI
Home Video and drove their 21-year-old company to the top, with
projected 2005 sales surpassing $8 million.
The couple strategically waited until the major studios had
agreed on new format standards, such as packaging. Then, in 1999,
they experimentally released 15 films on DVD. By that time, initial
problems had been resolved, and the costs for mastering,
replicating and digitizing DVDs had decreased. Says Larry,
"The whole question for us was not [whether] to pull out, but
when to expand."