As alumni of the BIRD Incubator, TensorPix is on a mission to eliminate low-quality videos and images through AI-powered enhancement and upscaling. We sat down with Bartol Freskura (Founder & CEO) and Matej Ciglenečki (CTO) of TensorPix to talk about their journey, challenges, and ambitions shaping their next chapter.
Who are you, what’s the name and age of your startup, and what problem are you solving?
We’re TensorPix, an online video and image quality enhancer and upscaler. Founded in 2020, we’re aiming to rid the world of low-quality videos and images — no matter the source.
How did you first connect with Bird Incubator, and what made you decide to join the program?
I met Sven from Bird somewhere in 2021 at a random event. As our talk moved towards startups and entrepreneurship, he mentioned Bird and some other startups that joined the incubator. Our startup was barely a year old so lots of experience was still missing, and Bird came as a great opportunity to fill in the knowledge gaps.
Every startup faces challenges—what’s been your toughest obstacle so far, and how did you overcome it?
Managing people and aligning them so we all work towards the same goals is always tricky, especially when the headcount starts to grow. But there are other challenges that come and go depending on the phase we’re in.
For example, in the beginning, most of our efforts went into building the MVP, which looked like a huge challenge back at the time. None of us ever wrote frontend nor backend, and now we had to learn both and build something others would find useful. Each new phase brings a new set of challenges 🙂
What’s one resource, connection, or experience at Bird Incubator that truly made a difference in your startup’s growth?
Easy — when I need to connect with someone who could help me out with some specific problem, I just pick up the phone and call Sven or Vid. These guys know the regional entrepreneurship scene quite well and will always find someone.
Investors and partners are often curious—what makes your business model stand out, and who are your target customers?
Our business model is unique in a way it combines a classical SaaS model with the pay-as-you-go model. People are sick of subscription-only services, especially when they need a service for a one-time use. This is where the pay-as-you-go model shines.
We mainly target B2C — people who want to revive filmed memories, digital agencies that need to prepare high-quality media files for clients, AI content creators who aren’t satisfied with the quality of generated content, and many more. It’s an extremely heterogenic user base.
Let’s talk about the future—where do you see your startup in five years, and what goals are you most excited to achieve?
We definitely want to expand the scope of business. Right now it’s upscaling and enhancing, but we’re setting our sights on 100% AI full video generation. Imagine a world where cameras as devices don’t exist, and you have to rely on generative AI and your imagination. We want to build a product that enables you to create full-blown movies, TV shows, or ads in that world.
To wrap up, what’s one piece of advice or wisdom from your journey that you believe every founder should know?
As my grandma told me: “It doesn’t matter if you fall a thousand times. What matters is that you get up and continue every time.” In other words: be prepared to fail a lot because you will. Unfortunately, easier said than done.
