NYConvergence ORIGINAL

The NY Video 2.0 Meetup borrowed space from the Streaming Media East conference last night and held their meetup at the Hilton New York in Manhattan's Midtown neighborhood.  Five startups, including Magma from Andrew Baron of Rocketboom, demonstrated their technology and three venture capitalists reviewed it a la American Idol.

The five startups were:

• Volomedia: The company has created a plug-in for Apple's iTunes which allows users to share and bookmark video which they watch there with others; the plug-in allows the company to gather metrics which can be provided to publishers.
• SesameVault: The technology facilitates the sharing of video content and according to an answer given to an audience member's question, it can handle up to 30 terabytes of data.
• Clearspring: They have developed a bookmarking tool to help publishers get their content in front of as many social-media users as possible, highlighting how it was used to promote the latest Vin Diesel flick.
• Aniboom: Not so much a technology as a community, the company aims to help animators network and receive recognition for their work.  Their demo consisted of a reel of highlights from some of their top animators.
• Magma: Online video pioneer Andrew Baron showed the audience how his team's latest creation could show the most-viewed videos on the Web across numerous social-networking services.

The panel of venture capitalists who reviewed the company's work included:

• First Round Capital: Howard Morgan, Partner
• Intel Capital: Sita Vasan, Sr. Manager, Strategic Investments
• Crossbar Capital: Charlie Federman, Managing Partner

After they had evaluated each, the audience, via SMS, voted for Magma as the best presentation and adjourned to the Hilton New York's Bridges bar.