Picking up from our earlier posts, here are companies 11-15:
COMPANY #11: StoryBlender.com
1 - The Elevator Pitch: Allow people from all over the world to create and edit videos together.
2 - Reminds Me Of… MySpace feeling, bringing low quality chaotic tools to the masses.
3 - Originality: There are a lot of online video editors and oodles and oodles of social networks, this combined the two.
4 - Validation: The company is founded by the bloke who started Cyworld, arguably the biggest social network in Asia… so let’s face it, that’s all the validation you need.
5 - Income vs. Capital Gain: Low quality inventory won’t generate high advertising rates, but this can naturally scale to a lot of inventory, period.
6 - VC odds: Backed by Cyworld’s founder, slam dunk.
7 - Exit Options: A social network or media company a la Viacom, looking to get back its hip factor.
8 - Bottom Line: I can’t edit, but I do produce video content, I see this as a lowering of video quality, which is the last thing we need… but being backed by Cyworld’s founder, who cares what I think. Also, as pointed out by Don Dodge during the panel, this is a copyright nightmare.
URL: http://www.StoryBlender.com
COMPANY #12: Tripit
1 - The Elevator Pitch: Master travel organizer.
2 - Reminds Me Of… Most web 2.0 startups that are itching for a flip.
3 - Originality: It’s useful, but I currently do this by simply – sit down folks – copying and pasting this info in my Palm pilot. That little fact notwithstanding, I guess streamlining it all onto one place is a nice feature.
4 - Validation: Launched today.
5 - Income vs. Capital Gain: Clearly this is a feature, at most a product, and not a company, I wonder why a company like Expedia won’t build something like this. I suppose the Tripit guys are hoping that a firm like Expedia will buy Tripit.
6 - VC odds: This morning Venture Beat asked if Web 2.0 interested had shifted to global opportunities… so if that is the case, Tripit won’t be able to raise money as easily, but with travel being one of the largest categories, I don’t think Tripit will have much difficulty raising VC money. I should add, that based on Ron Conway’s comment, they already have funding…
7 - Exit Options: Acquisition pretty soon by one of the travel companies or portals.
8 - Bottom Line: “Instead of printing 20 pages, you print 3 or 4…” but if I put it in my Palm, I print none. That being said, this is a nice feature… but that’s all it is, a feature (no, that’s not a knock).
COMPANY #13: Flock
1 - The Elevator Pitch: a social web browser.
2 - Reminds Me Of… what Facebook is already doing, though on steroids.
3 - Originality: This is great, we need a common, people-based social browser but I think Facebook is well on its way to doing that.
4 - Validation: Might be tricky to get users to use this, it might be too complicated.
5 - Income vs. Capital Gain: Revenue will be tricky… the investors will get their money back in an exit, thus capital gain.
6 - VC odds: I think while VCs are getting a bit tired of social networks and what not, this is a browser for social networks, so many will be tempted because even if there is a 1% chance of success, it could be a big upside.
7 - Exit Options: When Facebook says they might raise money for acquisitions, you think of whom… well, it would potentially for something like Flock. Flock if it works has a lot of upside, but it’s just a crapshoot…
8 - Bottom Line: Interesting, not sure if enough users (outside of Silicon Valley) want all the bells and whistles that come with it.
URL: http://www.flock.com
COMPANY #14: ShakeMusic.
1 - The Elevator Pitch: World’s first User Created Music platform.
2 - Reminds Me Of… StoryBlender.com, frankly, for music… though less copyright issue because it seems to be all user created and they retain the IP.
3 - Originality: Similar in nature to StoryBlender, which is ironic but it also suggests that Asia is in fact one step ahead… who needs UGC when you can create it?
4 - Validation: Can’t argue with the fundamental premise that more and more want to be creative.
5 - Income vs. Capital Gain: The presenters gave a quick example of how this is not a one-trick [advertising] pony… but the fact is, advertising – long term – is not the best revenue stream for UGC anyway, so it’s smart to allow for a commercial conduit between content creators and buyers.
6 - VC odds: Asia + Scale = Easy VC money.
7 - Exit Options: Same as StoryBlender.com…
8 - Bottom Line: Yes, the fathers of music are rolling in their graves, it was not meant to be this way… sitting here I wonder if the web is leading to the dumbing down of media altogether, but don’t blame companies like Storyblender or Shakemusic… cause these are social trends and someone will come up with the technology, they’re smart to recognize the trend.
URL: http://www.ShakeMusic.com
COMPANY #15: 8020Publishing
1 - The Elevator Pitch: Community-created magazines.
2 - Reminds Me Of… what makes for successful companies: they go against the grain. Magazines are considered dead, no one would think this works, but it just might.
3 - Originality: Pretty original for the abovementioned reason. Also, by getting a community to launch a magazine, it takes out some of the high costs associated with launching and distribution them. That’s viral applied to offline, which is pretty clear.
4 - Validation: Site is going live in the next 2 weeks.
5 - Income vs. Capital Gain: Clearly an income generator… but volume might be low and costs will remain tricky.
6 - VC odds: I’d be surprised to see a VC invest in magazines…
7 - Exit Options: Frankly, I think traditional media companies should be buying this.
8 - Bottom Line: Definitely going against the grain.
URL: http://www.8020Publishing.com
Additional comments from panel, I loved Rajeev Motwani’s line about the 3 companies he comes across:
1. Things I like and use
2. Things I want to invest in
3. Things I wish I would have invented.
Also, interesting to get a take on who legendary angel investor Ron Conway picked as his top picks: Storyblender and Tripit. He also added that the “Monetization of web video is the biggest opportunity online.”
I asked if he was convinced about UGC being monetized, and Mr. Yossi Vardi noted that TV was monetized 12 years after launch and Google started making money 3 years after launch… and Mr. Conway clarified that he meant more in terms of audience growth than revenue growth…
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