5 Questions with MediaHound’s Founder & CEO, Addison McCaleb

 

 

     Here is my latest exclusive Q&A with an executive and company you should know in the digital media and technology space but -- for now -- flies under the radar. Meet Addison McCaleb, Co-Founder & CEO of LA-based MediaHound.  I have come to know MediaHound and Addison over the past several months.  MediaHound is a new way to find relevant content of all stripes -- music, movies, TV shows, and books -- and, accordingly, gives you a comprehensive view of what may “matter” to you.  That is a holistic approach that is different from anything else I have seen.MediaHound comes from the University of Southern California (USC) Viterbi School of Engineering's new accelerator, Viterbi StartUp Garage, which has a compelling pedigree.  The accelerator is backed by blue chip VC Kleiner Perkins and digital media savvy talent agency UTA.  And, Addison and his team are young, smart, and passionate.  They have assembled a strong team of advisors -- and soon will officially launch.

     On with the questions:  

     (1) What is the reason your company exists (and what problem(s) are you looking to solve?

     MediaHound exists to simplify the discovery and sharing of great entertainment. There are so many ways you can consume content – digital rentals, streaming subscriptions, ebooks, and traditional hard copies – so we connect and consolidate all of that, letting you search, share, and discover across a comprehensive catalog of everything out there. We are both a toolset and a destination in that way.  One simple example: You might have the world’s best playlist of songs and want to share it with me, but if I subscribe to a different source than you, I’m are out of luck! By establishing universal links for all content, MediaHound makes it possible for people and brands to reach share or interact with their entire audience, regardless of source or platform.

    (2)  How are you different from your competitors?

     MediaHound is the only comprehensive, source-neutral platform out there. Various sources or services offer features or products that overlap with a portion of MediaHound, but nobody has our comprehensive and unbiased perspective, which is perfect for making entertainment social and providing incredible recommendations across sources and media types. On the B2B side, we provide a spectrum of unique tools that help businesses engage with their entire audience, not just the fraction of their users on one particular source.

    (3)  Why will you succeed (and what is your single most important ingredient for success)?

         Entertainment is the most talked about topic online, but the way we talk about it through blogs, ads, and social media is broken. We provide an elegant solution that is easy to integrate into the conversations people are already having, making them more meaningful, accessible, and social, without adding steps to the process. We believe we will succeed because of the inherent need people have to share, discover, curate, and collect the things they care about.

    (4)  What makes you unique (and what do you enjoy most outside of building your business)?

  

     We are a really nerdy company. A couple of us went to film school and all of us are big, geeky fans of different movies, books, shows and games. That unabashed love for the content itself informs what we do. (It also makes for some interesting debates).

    (5)  What digital media trend is most interesting to you (and what is the least)?

        We are super interested in the ongoing digitization of content and the fracturing of the digital distribution system. There have never been more options out there, but those options can be very confusing for the audience, and they can create barriers between people. I wouldn’t say that I’m not interested in a particular trend, but I think that the ongoing battle between Android and Apple gets quite a bit of coverage. I like both for different reasons, and when you focus too much on one particular product or feature, especially in media, you can lose sight of the big picture ways devices and users are moving forward. Behaviors are changing, but at the end of the day people just want to be entertained.