Magnify.net is a video sharing platform that lets you create 'channels' using video content sourced from all over the web. Find, filter and share videos from your site using embeddable players or from your branded channel hosted by Magnify. Search for videos from all over the web and update your viewers with RSS when you add new content.
Features:
* Your audience can add video, discuss, review, and help to organize videos
• Customizable channel templates - supporting text, photos and sound
• Integration with Revver http://www.magnify.net/support/faq/revver (increase your revenue share income)
• Non-video uploads (text, photos, sound) are also supported
• Chat widget
• PayPal integration
Funding: $1.2M - New York Angels and NextStage Capital
CEO: Steve Rosenbaum
Headquarters: Both NY and SF. Diverse workforce is based on both coasts.
Employees: Less than 10
Founded: 2006
Business model: Advertising with Revenue Share
Users: 5300 channels created to date
CEO and Founder Steve Rosenbaum answered a few of our questions and shares his unabashed enthusiasm for Magnify.net. Read more below-
1. What is your company about? What's your business model?
Magnify.net is a platform that allows web sites, communities, and content creators to build video-centric web channels easily. This means that any site, large or small, can leverage the passion of their members, and the extraordinary wealth of user-generated video that exists on video hosts across the web.
Maybe the best way to explain is to give you an example:
Let's say you've built a site that invites hobbyists who build and fly radio controlled air planes and you want to offer your members a place to upload, share, and discover videos about their hobby. Well, using the Magnify.net self-serve tools you can use the graphic elements of your site (header, footer, background, even CSS) and create pages that integrate seamlessly with your existing site. All you need to do is put in a few key words, and Magnify.net goes out and discovers videos from all the popular hosting sites... and creates a page of videos for your community to comment, rate, and sort. And because it's your look and feel, and even your URL, your members never leave your domain.
The example is real: www.rcuvideos.com. And there are already 1,600 members registered to this niche community.
Being able to create video communities with easy tools has caught on quickly, and there are already 5,300 channels that have been built and are being watched by folks who want to take the job of network content curator. And what's so cool is that the subjects cover a wide gamut from sports, music, business, and niche communities.
We do it as a partnership with our Channel Producers, so we provide the technology - Channel Producers provide the concept, the curation, and the community. And we share all of the revenue on our pages with our partners on a 50/50 basis.
2. Why did you start this company?
Well - I'm a visual storyteller. So I've spent my life making films, documentaries, and trying to understand the world by recording and sharing pictures. So now that the tools have made it possible for video to become a really useful part of web sites - I knew I wanted to help share the tools that would make that possible. But it goes further than that - I've been building companies that are based on User-Generated Content going back to my early days at MTV. When I created MTV UNfiltered - it was the first time a TV network had turned a regularly scheduled slot over to its viewers. And UNfiltered was a monster hit. Since then, I've been convinced that high quality digital video and the growth of broadband and wireless would shift the power away from mainstream network television, and toward much more focused niche video. Turning personal passions and interests into video content makes it possible to find a network on the web that totally meets your needs.
3. What's your background?
Hmm. Let's see. Technologist. Documentary Filmmaker. Magician. Bartender. I'm a serial entrepreneur - this is my 3rd startup. And I've always been hungry to innovate, explore, and be part of the democratization of media. In all of my work with TV networks, I always tried to find a way to explore new voices and new POV's. Through my companies I've worked for HBO, MTV, Discovery, CNN, MSNBC, Court TV and my feature documentary "7 Days in September" played in movie theatres in NY and LA.
4. How do you build a community of people who create shows on your platform? What's in it for them?
Well, we don't build a community. That's not our job. Magnify.net isn't a destination, it's a platform for people who are looking for a way to find, upload, organize, and publish video channels. We're certainly not the only game in town, but we think that we've built some really solid solutions that are coherent, easy to use, and focused on our customers. We've got a very active user community so our Channel Producers are always suggesting new ways to add features and services on the platform. We take that input really seriously - we just released 10 new features and 8 of them were built based on user requested features. So folks that build on Magnify.net should find that they're getting a great service, with a very committed team of developers who are going to be constantly innovating so that we can grow along with our members and the video space.
5. Have you entered into any partnerships with other companies? How did you go about finding opportunities and negotiating deals?
Tons. We have a great biz dev team in both San Francisco and New York. Scott Milener is in the Bay Area and he's working with companies in the community, web development, and advertising space. In New York we have Ken Berger who's working with tech companies, media companies, and publishers. Lots of companies find us - by emailing businesssolutionsmagnify.net. We are quick to respond - since most of our partners have already done their homework and decided that we're a good fit. We look for win/win deals, where our platform and our partner's tools or traffic help both teams grow together.
6. Are you funded? What was the process for you to raise capital? How did you decide what investors to work with?
We've got an amazing group of investors. David Rose of RoseTechVentures and NY Angels and Dan McKinney of Next Stage Capital led the round. Active Angel investors, Chris Anderson, Bruce Greenwald and Ava Seave and Stage1 ventures participated as well. We're currently talking to a number of Venture groups about plan to continue to invest aggressively in our technology, customer development, and advertising network integration. The reception has been pretty encouraging.
7. What are you bringing to the market that's innovative and groundbreaking?
People should be able to use video on their sites. It shouldn't be hard. It shouldn't be scary. It should be fun and fast. And if we can help people find, organize, and share video around their niches of knowledge - then we're going to sleep at night knowing we're helping spread ideas and information that can really make the web a dynamic dimensional place.
Buy a man a fish, he'll eat for a day. Give a man (or woman) a video camera and a broadband connection - and they'll be building a fishing channel in no time!
How cool is that.
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