---
title: "Video content in e-commerce | Nora Huovila | Negotiator 37"
titleOriginal: "Verkkokauppojen videosisältö | Nora Huovila | Neuvottelija 37"
episodeNumber: "37"
guest: "Nora Huovila"
datePublished: 2020-09-18
duration: "37:15"
youtube: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTw322xy90w"
captionsVtt: https://www.neuvottelija.com/podcast/episodes/ep37-verkkokauppojen-videosisalto-nora-huovila/captions.en.vtt
captionsSrt: https://www.neuvottelija.com/podcast/episodes/ep37-verkkokauppojen-videosisalto-nora-huovila/captions.en.srt
originalLanguage: "fi"
topics: ["saas_software","investing_markets"]
subtitleMethod: "none"
provenance: "Owner page assembled from the MacWhisper SRT transcript, YouTube metadata and the neuvottelija.fi episode record. Chapter timecodes are taken from the transcript; no caption files are published with this page."
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canonical: https://www.neuvottelija.com/podcast/episodes/ep37-verkkokauppojen-videosisalto-nora-huovila/
---
# Video content in e-commerce | Nora Huovila | Negotiator 37

## Chapters

- [00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTw322xy90w&t=0s) Videoly, the cap table and the first VC round
- [02:41](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTw322xy90w&t=161s) The Aalto women's network and where it led
- [05:14](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTw322xy90w&t=314s) Soft values as a deliberate route to hard results
- [07:51](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTw322xy90w&t=471s) Growth targets and whether the culture survives America
- [10:21](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTw322xy90w&t=621s) The journey, not the destination — Sinek and the infinite game
- [12:51](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTw322xy90w&t=771s) Why video sells: the psychology of moving images
- [15:21](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTw322xy90w&t=921s) Curation and the product-information problem
- [17:51](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTw322xy90w&t=1071s) YouTube versus Vimeo and search visibility
- [20:27](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTw322xy90w&t=1227s) Data on which video actually leads to the basket
- [23:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTw322xy90w&t=1380s) Subtitles and the choice of language markets
- [25:33](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTw322xy90w&t=1533s) Negotiating with brands and with large retailers
- [28:05](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTw322xy90w&t=1685s) Internationalisation one vertical at a time
- [30:35](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTw322xy90w&t=1835s) Remote teams and how much location still matters
- [33:06](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTw322xy90w&t=1986s) Work permits and English as the working language
- [35:36](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTw322xy90w&t=2136s) Closing advice: the entrepreneur's freedom, not only the responsibility

## Summary

Videoly CEO Nora Huovila explains how the company pulls product videos for an entire e-commerce catalogue out of YouTube and attaches them automatically to product pages — tens of thousands of products from a single script implementation. The episode covers the psychology that makes video move purchase decisions, the curation process, the different maturity of the brand side and the retailer side, internationalising one vertical at a time with an office in Toronto next to Shopify, and why Huovila treats company culture as the competitive edge in the fight for top talent.

## What is discussed

- **Videoly and its owners.** Founded by Sergei; Huovila joined as second founder to build the commercial side. Three angel rounds, Reaktor Ventures early, angels including Kim Väisänen, board chaired by Nosto founder Juha Valvanen, and a first VC round of one million led by Vendep Capital. All employees hold equity through an option programme.
- **The Aalto women's network.** Founded in 2011 to connect career-oriented women and open up what companies are actually like to work for. Co-founder Paula Poukka now runs Videoly's sales and marketing.
- **Culture as competitive edge.** Huovila's case for people-first values is commercial: hard results require the best people, and culture is what wins and keeps them. The philosophy leans on Simon Sinek's infinite game and on memento mori — the journey has to be worth it, because the exit may never come.
- **Why video works.** Text costs cognitive effort; images are absorbed automatically. The brain is tuned to movement, and a person telling a story with sound and picture lands multisensorially.
- **Curation at catalogue scale.** A store may carry hundreds of thousands of products. Videoly sources brand and product videos from YouTube, watches every one to verify quality and product match, and links them automatically — thousands of videos from one script implementation.
- **The platform game.** Google and YouTube are the two largest search engines; Vimeo's organic visibility does not compare. Videoly runs a hybrid of YouTube player and brand-supplied files, with ads only at the end of an embedded video.
- **Purchase data.** Because the video sits on the product page, Videoly can see whether it led to the basket, which content types work, and where viewers drop off — information it feeds back to content producers.
- **Internationalisation.** Retailer side first and one vertical at a time, because retailer coverage makes the brand-side product attractive. The first office is planned for Toronto near Shopify rather than the US, with Paula Poukka relocating.
- **English as the working language.** International from day one, with product development remote in Eastern Europe and no Finnish requirement in job ads — Huovila's point being that a Finnish-language culture raises the threshold for the first non-Finnish hire prohibitively.
- **Closing advice.** Finns shoulder the entrepreneur's responsibility but forget the entrepreneur's freedom: maximum influence over your own working life is the real prize, and also the winning route to the big exit.

## Watch

The recording lives on the Neuvottelija channel: [Verkkokauppojen videosisältö | Nora Huovila | Neuvottelija 37](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTw322xy90w).
A Finnish edition of this episode is published at [www.neuvottelija.fi](https://www.neuvottelija.fi/fi/episodes/43-verkkokauppojen-videosisalto-nora-huovila-neuvottelija-37).

---

Cite as: Sami Miettinen, Neuvottelija — Video content in e-commerce | Nora Huovila | Negotiator 37, https://www.neuvottelija.com/podcast/episodes/ep37-verkkokauppojen-videosisalto-nora-huovila/, 2020-09-18. For quotes include episode 37 and timestamp.