There is an endless stream of content all around us. Text, audio and now video. As a consumer, it's both a bit overwhelming and also awesome to be able to consume wherever and whenever we want. It's up to us to determine how to consume. This poses a problem for creators as they need to distribute their content everywhere.
For content creators, the most important consideration is distribution. If no one sees your work, irrespective of its quality, what's the point of creating it in the first place? The problem has been somewhat solved for text. Wherever the creator publishes it, they can also push it to Medium and tweet it out - in the simplest case. This is a more difficult problem for audio, but has also been solved to some extent. Video distribution has not been solved - at all. This problem will get worse as additional distribution endpoints are created.
As an example, take a look at this section of Jason Calacanis' "This Week in Startups" email:
Jason's team has highlighted 9 places for a person to be able to hear the content. But to watch it, the only option seems to be YouTube. What about AppleTV, Facebook Watch, Instagram Video, Snap and other options? Video creators face a very fragmented market of device types, platforms and social channels that they need to distribute to. There is more video than ever and this growth will not stop. And yet it's too difficult to post to the endless endpoints. The answer is StayTuned.
Although the product has not yet been completed, the vision is clear and compelling. StayTuned is a single platform that enables smart video syndication everywhere. And video is a huge and growing market. 79% of internet traffic will be video by 2020 and by 2025, OTT devices and services will be a $165B market.
Co-founder and CEO, Serge Kassardjia immedialy impressed us. Serge was previously the Global Head of Media Apps for Google Play and Android and has incredible deep domain knowledge of the problem set. Serge has teamed up with Randy Jimenez, his co-founder and CTO. Randy is a multi-time CTO and has both the knowledge and the network to build a tremendous team.
Randy on the left & Serge on the right
We're proud to join our friends at Bowery Capital in supporting StayTuned's $2.5M seed round. We're staying tuned to see their impact on video distribution. You can read more about it at TechCrunch.
StayTuned is actively hiring for their New York office. Check out their open roles and apply!