Athan Stephanopoulos, CEO and founder of Gorilla Spot, discusses the appeal and success of the online public editing program. By teaming up with movie houses including Paramount Pictures, Gorilla Spot is able to provide users with premium content on an intuitive user-friendly editing platform.

What we learned about Gorilla Spot:

• An online video editing application bringing premium entertainment content to the hands of creative users
• Generates revenue with a CPA model for every video created and a CPM model for every video consumed
• Recently did a campaign for Paramount Pictures and the movie Sweeney Todd

After months of inactivity, I’ve decided to finally update my blog to a more web 2.0 look. I’ve also updated the About Me page to reflect a bit more about what I”ve been doing lately, check it out if you are interested.

For the moment, and probably for the foreseeable future, I will be absolutely swamped with multiple academic and non-academic projects. As part of NextNY’s open movement, I will be announcing a few of my projects publicly in the next few months and would love to hear any feedback that you all have!

Yesterday, we had an adhoc get together in the West Village and discussed all things digital media.  Just because the SXSW Interactive festival is happening in Austin right now, doesn’t mean that we can’t get smart people together here in New York.

The weather (rain) certainly was a deterrent but for the diverse group of people who showed up, it was great.  Topics discussed included social networks and the filtering of relationships, investing in early stage companies (pre-revenue), Twitter’s technical infrastructure, voice peering exchanges, and such.

I love these get togethers as it brings people together to chat about likeminded topics.  Stay tuned for more in the upcoming weeks.   Thanks to all who joined!

I’ve got a passion for photography, both personally and through business. When I was working at FortuneCity, I worked with the team to create MyPhotoAlbum, one of the leading photo hosting destinations. I met Allen through another entrepreneur and it was only fitting to run this interview because I’ve got a photography lesson this weekend in Central Park. Also, the interview is fairly in-depth and fascinating.

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Please welcome the CEO and Founder of PhotoShelter, Allen Murabayashi.

 

Please state your name, title, and years at current company/position:
Allen Murabayashi, CEO/Founder. We officially registered PhotoShelter as an LLC in February of 2005, and launched our first product, the PhotoShelter Personal Archive in late June of 2005.

What are you currently up to? If entrepreunering (my word), tell me about your startup. If investing, what are you looking at?
I currently run PhotoShelter, which has two main services for photographers. The first is the Personal Archive, which is a subscription-based, “business-in-the-box” service that allows photographers to archive, distribute and sell their images. Over 20,000 photographers worldwide use that product.

We recently launched our second product, The PhotoShelter Collection, which is a stock photography platform that sits between flickr and Getty Images. Basically, we allow anyone who is interested in selling an image commercially as stock to upload images, go through our editing process, and then we market the image to ad agencies, publications, graphic designers, et al.

Why are you doing this? You could be doing so many other things in the world, what about this particular idea strikes you?
I’ve been interested in photography since junior high. In 2001, I purchased a digital SLR, and started hanging out with a lot of professional photographers. The shift from film to digital presented some pretty unique problems, but it also was a huge opportunity to take these digital files and use the Internet to solve the problem of distribution and photographer rights.

With the explosion of digital and the increasing demand for content, we see so many opportunities to take a hugely diverse group of photographers from amateurs to pros, and assemble them in a community with the primary mission of licensing the photos. The buyers love it because they get the diversity of flickr, but with the ready-to-license capability of the mega stock agencies. And the photographers love it because we give them the best cut in the industry, and treat them like artists, and not just suppliers.

All startups should be addressing a problem in the market. What is that exact problem and how are you solving it?
We believe that image buyers are constantly seeking new sources of imagery, and they have real budgets to spend on getting the right image to illustrate their concept. The current models of selling stock photography are outmoded and don’t address 1) the diversity of contributors that exist, and 2) the velocity at which buyers need to find and then license work.

I like to use eBay as an example because they are the prototype for the online marketplace. Ebay treated suppliers and buyers democratically, built a community and a platform, and once they created some fluidity in the marketplace, they grew dramatically. They proved that there was a need for diversity, and that you didn’t have to go through traditional channels to create commerce. We believe that we can follow the same path.

Have you thought about your business model yet? I’m assuming so, so tell us a bit about it.
The PhotoShelter Personal Archive has a monthly subscription, and we take transaction fees from sales originating from The PhotoShelter Collection.

If you’re looking at an ad-supported model, how are you going about it? Do you have in-house ad sales? Using a rep firm? What are the challenges that you’re facing with getting ad dollars?
I’m a bit anti-ad-supported model because it typically only works for the largest of consumer plays. And I think that a lot of the large companies are still trying to figure out how to make money. I personally prefer a much more direct revenue model that isn’t a function of traffic, but rather of buying activity.

If you’re selling a product/service/subscription, how is that coming along? What are the challenges? Are you using the freemium model?
Yes, we offer both a free, limited account, as well as paid subscriptions with the Personal Archive. The free account acts as a great funnel for acquiring paid users. It gives us an interested pool of users, who in some ways, are really looking to be upsold on a product that can solve some of their fundamental problems of archiving, distribution, marketing and sales.

Conversion points and conversion % will always be the challenge. You can always work to improve the conversion, and we’re learning a lot about how people perceive our product when we examine the conversion possibilities.

As an entrepreneur or investor, what are your thoughts on competition? How do you view competition?
The competition is really Getty Images, and in this respect it’s tough because they are a very well established player with lots of big contracts in place. However, there’s also a lot of unrest in the industry and people are looking in particular for ways to license images very easily for usage on the web. In this respect, there is a huge opportunity for an Internet upstart to come in and shake things up. Getty uses the Internet as a channel; they are not an Internet company. We think this distinction actually ends up being pretty crucial in the operating philosophy.

If your competitor called you up to have coffee and discuss shop, what would you do? Would you go? What would you divulge?
Of course! There is so much to be learned by talking to people, especially the competition. And in some ways, I appreciate the academic challenge of growing a business, and am very interested in people’s philosophies of success. That said, “loose lips sink ships” so I wouldn’t divulge anything that I felt would comprise our success.

Is the current state of the economic market playing to your favor? If so, why? If not, why? What is your forecast of the market throughout 2008 and do you see affects? Macro and Micro economic theory would be interesting to hear about.
I’ve never felt that as a start-up that we were so affected by the markets. If you’re starting from zero, there is a huge opportunity for growth, so to use the economy as a reason that you can’t make your first $1, $100, $1000, $10000….it’s silly. If we were making $10MM a month and much more mature a company, I can understand how the economy would affect the bottom line, but we’re in growth mode. Maybe I’m naïve about this stuff, but I think at this stage, blaming a lack of success on the economy is an excuse.

How much of your time is spent working? How much is spent with family? Have you found the entrepreneurial quality of life yet?
I work 6 days a week. I absolutely refuse to work on Saturday, and this is more of a sanity thing. I find myself working a little more than I’d like, but at the same time, it’s enormously satisfying to be able to create change as execute plans and “turn the ship” when we think we need to. It helps that I’m single, that’s for sure. It would be very difficult, if not impossible, for me to have a family while doing the entrepreneurial thing.

Thank you very much Allen, we really appreciate you taking the time! Please leave questions and comments for Allen here and he’ll be sure to answer.

Viddler, content creator friendly video sharing site and premiere For Your Imagination distribution partner, has launched a new version of their homepage which includes an all new and exciting red carpet feature. Right in the middle of the red carpet today we find a DadLabs Gear Daddy video and the latest nextNYers interview with Mint Digital. The Viddler player is the player used on the brand video hubs for both nextNYers and DadLabs (Check out the very cool Viddler player with thumbnails on DadLabs). With Viddler now integrated into TubeMogul, we expect great things from them.

At last week’s BigScreen LittleScreen meetup at the For Your Imagination studio Matt Feldman showed scenes from his HolyLandTV project. On March 18 Matt will present his production company Neovids.tv at Web2NewYork.

Today, New York-based Thrillist, the producers of wildly popular daily email tips aimed at men (women have Daily Candy), launched their service in Chicago, extending their brand from it’s New York origins and more recent additions of LA and San Francisco.

Keeping with their usual tone, the announcement came with a bit of humor:

Today, two monumentally exciting things happen: Alan Greenspan turns 82, and We Launch Thrillist Chicago.

Thrillist, led by Ben Leher (#86 on the Silicon Alley 100), has built itself into one of the most successful email newsletter companies in the business, reaching tens of thousands of subscribers in each of its markets on a daily basis.

What’s next for Thrillist is unknown, except that they will continue to push hard for growth. Despite just launching in a new market, the company is already asking website visitors to vote for the next city, and among the choices are Boston, Philly, Seattle, Miami, Dallas, DC, Atlanta, or London — all cities we could end up seeing new Thrillists in the coming months.

You can sign-up for the Chicago list (or forward it on to your Chicago friends) here.

The job market is heating up depending on the industry you are in, and there are some major players emerging who run ad networks for jobs (jobs being the ads). Gone are the days that you solely go to Monster or CareerBuilder for jobs… now, if you’re reading PaidContent and loving the digital media news, you can see job postings right on the site, enabled by companies like JobThread.

In this interview, we sit down with Eric Yoon, CEO and Co-Founder of JobThread. Timing for this posting is extremely relevant because know many people who are in the market both to hire and to find new opportunities.

Please join me in welcoming Eric…

1. Please state your name, title, and years at current company/position:

Eric Yoon, CEO/Co-Founder, JobThread (4 years 4 months)

2. What are you currently up to? If entrepreunering (my word), tell me about your startup.

JobThread is an ad network for jobs. Currently, we deliver over 70mm impressions/mo to over 12mm uniques/mo across a highly targeted network of top tier publishers (such as paidContent, SourceForge, Slashdot, Seeking Alpha, Silicon Alley Insider and many more). We maximize revenue for publishers and allow job posters to reach highly targeted, well-qualified jobseekers that they won’t find on large, commodity job boards.

3. Why are you doing this? You could be doing so many other things in the world, what about this particular idea strikes you?

There are a couple of reasons. The primary reason is that there’s a tremendous and unique market opportunity, a category killer opportunity in a $6B market, in an area where I have domain expertise and where JobThread is doing a great job. The other reason is that, while I got my start in online recruitment back in ‘99 working at HotJobs by chance, I truly am interested in labor and adding transparency to labor markets. I have a social entrepreneurship bent, though I haven’t done anything there yet, I hope to and for me, aside from food and shelter–the two most basic needs–labor is the basic activity that drives daily life and, I think, most impacts quality of life. And I think JobThread has an opportunity to help people find great jobs and to help companies find great people. It’s one of those “at the end of the day” things, where I really do believe that if we do great work here, we can chip in and help make the world a better place.

4. All startups should be addressing a problem in the market. What is that exact problem and how are you solving it?

We help companies reach high quality jobseekers via targeted advertising.

The problem that we solve is that while there are a lot of job boards out there that reach a lot of people, often the result of posting a job on Monster or even Craigslist is that you reach a lot of people, too many people, and often people that are not qualified for the job you posted.

5. Have you thought about your business model yet? I’m assuming so, so tell us a bit about it.

We have a simple model. We sell recruitment advertising (job postings) to companies, distribute their jobs to targeted audiences via our network and generate revenues for publishers and fees for JobThread.

6a. If you’re looking at an ad-supported model, how are you going about it? Do you have in-house ad sales? Using a rep firm? What are the challenges that you’re facing with getting ad dollars?

We sell recruitment advertising (primarily job postings) via self service sales and our sales force.

7. As an entrepreneur or investor, what are your thoughts on competition? How do you view competition?

I like competition. I’m fairly competitive. I can also be paranoid about competition, but I think that’s somewhat normal. I like competition for a couple of reasons. First, it does help to drive innovation. It’s easy to get lazy when you’re not trying to raise the bar higher and higher. Second, competitors help to build the market. If we had no competitors, it’s likely true, as they say, that we’re either too early or wrong about the market.

8. If your competitor called you up to have coffee and discuss shop, what would you do? Would you go? What would you divulge?

I love that and I’ll sometimes reach out to a founder at a competitor to say hello and get acquainted and meet up if possible. I think it’s good to know the people in your industry and sometimes there are even ways to work together and compete at the same time.

9. Is the current state of the economy playing to your favor? If so, why? If not, why? What is your forecast of the market throughout 2008 and do you see affects? Macro and Micro economic theory would be interesting to hear about.

I wouldn’t say the oncoming recession is good for business, but at the same time, it’s a huge market, so there’s still a lot of blue sky for us. Since we’re in the job market, a downturn does mean less jobs advertised. But, at the same time, it also means that companies look for a better ROI on their recruitment ad spending and this is something that I think will play in our favor.

10. How much of your time is spent working? How much is spent with family? Have you found the entrepreneurial quality of life yet?

Hm. No. I have not found it. I do spend a good amount of my time working. I don’t work 24×7 as I learned that that does lead to burnout, but I’ll often be at home, on the sofa, working away on nights and weekends. I do try to set aside time on Sundays to have dinner with my folks and to relax with friends.

For anyone who has any questions for Eric, feel free to post them in the comments section. This market is certainly fascinating and we’d all like to learn from it.

Thank you!

I was talking with Peter Kafka of SAI yesterday, and he mentioned John Markoff's disdain for blogs. Sure enough today I was putzing around nytimes.com, as I compulsively do, and came across this:

"John Markoff covers Silicon Valley. He began writing about technology in 1976 and joined The Times in 1988. He gained some notoriety several years ago when he stated that he thought blogs might be the CB radio of the 21st century. He still believes that."

Not sure how I missed this the first time around but... John, are you on crack?* The innovations wrought by blogs are here to stay.**

CBs died because better technology came along, not because they were a bad idea. We now use cellphones to talk in our cars, and the web to chat with strangers in stilted lingo. With blogs as with CBs, the underlying technology and nomenclature may well change, but the needs they fulfill remain, and will be met.

Many of the characteristic traits of blogs--reader comments, frequent updates, a personal voice--are being incorporated into other forms of media. And as that happens, blogs per se may fade away. Maybe "blog" will be put out to pasture with "information superhighway,"***.

Though I suspect they will stick around and evolve, and we'll just keep calling them blogs. It's a succinct and useful word, where "information superhighway" was always an awkward eight syllables, dated on the day it was coined. But just because we don't call it the "information superhighway" anymore doesn't mean the Internet isn't all that and a bag of donuts. Likewise blogs, by that or any other name.

* John, I don't really think you're on crack. Hyperbole is a rhetorical device typical of blogs.

** Self-assured pronouncements by those totally unqualified to make them? Also typical.

*** Larding your "posts" with "links", either for informative purposes or in hopes of getting "link love"**** back from those you've linked to? Again, a typical blogging strategy.

**** Bloggers love cutesy phrases like this.

NY-based Foodist Colony is a service that lets you setup your own restaurant guide and/or interact with the community who have setup their own. Think of it as a personal Yelp that you can customize to show off the restaurants you like around the city. The site has been around for two years and currently serves only the NYC metro area.

When you signup for an account on Foodist, you are presented with three choices: create a premade site with one of their starter kits, build your own restaurant guide or just enter the site and add your selections later on. Here is the demo guide I setup -- note that I just picked some pizzerias, these are not my favorites :).

Here's an example restaurant page which might actually be better than Yelp. I like the "I've been there" option which lets you keep track of where you have eaten.

There are widgets, an iPhone/Touch version, mini-social network and lots of cross-promotion from other members. I'd like to see Facebook and Twitter integration. And what about a tie into Savory Cities to include video overviews? And of course where is the news/activity feed? Lastly, tie in GoMobo (our coverage) for takeout ordering directly.

This is a direct competitor for recently-launched Bricabox (our coverage). Bricabox has more technical options but requires you to enter the content from scratch. With Foodist Colony, the content is already there as a starting point, what a brilliant idea. Both services could learn something from the other.

In my testing over the past couple of days, I am very impressed by how slick the app is. It has enough Ajaxy-goodness but not an amount that's overwhelming. The responses from the system are quick and the information is well presented. What I don't see is any advertising or costs to be a member, so I am not sure how they monetize the app. I have a message into the team and will report back.