My Top 10 EXCLUSIVE CEO Interviews of 2014 - Digital Media Companies/Execs You Need to Know

Long-time readers of my blog know that I have a long-running EXCLUSIVE Q&A series with CEOs of some of the most innovative digital media companies that I believe you should know.    I "hand pick" them -- and believe their stories are both interesting and instructive.  My series is called "5 Questions with ...." -- and each exec answers the same questions in their own words (and with real insights you won't find anyplace else).  2014's list is impressive -- with most execs and companies achieving significant strategic milestones during the year (including major M&A and financings).  Coincidence?  I would like to think not!

In any event, for your reading pleasure, here are my Top 10 "5 Questions with ... “ exclusive interviews of 2014 -- as measured by you, my readers:

(1) Stephanie Horbaczewski, CEO/Founder of StyleHaul -- sold her leading fashion-focused MCN to Euro-based RTL Group in Q4 for a deal that values the company up to $200 million.  That buys you a lot of style.  And Stephanie has it.  And now, a lot more of it.

(2) Colin Digiaro, President of Woven Digital -- just recently closed a major $18 million Series A round of financing.  Significant cash to accelerate its reach to its target core young male Vice-like audience.

(3) John West, CEO/Founder of Whistle Sports -- this leading sports-focused MCN also just recently closed a major round of financing -- $7 million -- with British mega-media company BSKYB.  Expect much more to come in 2015.

(4) Jack Conte, CEO/Founder of Patreon -- another featured company that successfully raised significant capital -- $15 million to be exact.  Based in the Bay Area.  Focused on the arts -- and financing through crowd-funding.  A different kind of crowd-funding.  Subscription-based.

(5) Oscar Hoglund, CEO/Founder of Epidemic Sound -- one of my favorite CEOs on this list.  Based in Sweden.  Serial entrepreneur who has been serially successful.  And, tackling (successfully!) the white hot issue of global music rights for our borderless digital video world.  Coming soon to the States.

(6) Jocelyn Johnson, Founder of VideoInk -- my favorite new "must read" publication -- exclusively digital video-focused.  Very LA (because that's where most of that digital video "action" is ...).  Am proud to be a regular contributor.

(7) Dmitri Williams, CEO/Founder of Ninja Metrics -- LA-based analytics company born, bred, and run by PhDs.  A different "take" on ad-tech.  Gaming-focused.  Highly respected.  Closely watched.  We at Manatt Digital are investors.

(8) Nicolas Gonda, CEO/Founder of Tugg -- another "share economy" company that is focused on solving the financial realities of indie visionaries, but this time on the movie/video side (as opposed to Patreon which is largely, though not exclusively, music-focused).

(9) Sean Wycliffe, CEO/Founder of Dealflicks -- love the problem this company is trying to solve -- filling empty movie theater seats via efficient "real-time" pricing.  Makes sense.  Let's see if 2015 brings in real dollars.  The opportunity is now.

(10) Phil Shalala, CEO/Founder of Krush -- a social media marketplace focused on action sports and street-wear -- empowering emerging artists and brands to market their passion projects.

2014 -- a banner crop of innovative CEOs and digital media companies.  Honored to have this kind of access to real innovators.

Stay tuned for an equally impressive list for 2015, as the VC world increasingly focuses on the disruption, opportunity and power that is "digital."

Crowd-Funding Patreon Scores $15 Million Series A to Support Artists & Creators

Big news for Patreon -- a Bay Area-based digital media company I have tracked closely for nearly a year (since the time I met CEO Jack Conte in the “green room" of Bloomberg TV just before each of us had our respective segments).  The company just scored a massive $15 million Series A round of financing led by Index Ventures (and with several other blue chip investors) (no wonder he is smiling in the picture) -- tremendous validation for a company whose mission is “to fund and empower the emerging creative class.”

How?  Patreon uniquely enables all of us to be patrons of the arts by taking a different spin on crowd-funding -- i.e., giving fans the ability to make recurring payments to content creators (musicians, video creators, artists) in order to support them monetarily on a continuing (rather than “one off”) basis for the art that moves them.  Conte -- a great, authentic guy -- understands the world of artists well (and the challenges to making a living), since he is a musician himself.  I recently profiled him and Patreon as part of my “5 Questions With ...” exclusive interviews (which you can check out here -- very informative).


Here are some recent “fun facts” that fueled this investment:

-- the company’s revenues grew 10X in the past 5 months;
-- the company launched just 13 months ago with 3 creators using its platform; that number is now over 25,000!
-- 180 new creators are signing up every day
-- here is a big one -- the company has sent over $2 million to creators since its launch 13 months ago (with $1 million of that being sent to artists in just the past 2 months)

In other words, Patreon’s platform is working.  And, this $15 million won’t hurt it accelerate those already-impressive numbers.  Good news for Patreon.  Great news for artists (and all of us who support them)!

5 Questions with Patreon CEO Jack Conte -- My Exclusive Q&A

Patreon is a Bay Area-based company that enables all of us to be patrons of the arts.  The company takes a different spin on crowdfunding -- giving fans the ability to make recurring payments to content creators (musicians, video creators, artists) in order to support them monetarily on a continuing (rather than “one off”) basis for the art that moves them.  Another compelling ray of new hope in our brave new digital/social media age -- reflecting the power and opportunity of direct one-to-one engagement.  Interesting.  Compelling.  I met CEO and founder Jack Conte in the waiting room of Bloomberg, just before both of us went on the air live in separate interviews.  Conte is a musician himself. 

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

Patreon exists because the current system for "content monetization” is entirely broken.  How can a creator who routinely engages hundreds of thousands of people make only a few hundred dollars per month?!  How can a blogger who has 10k monthly uniques gets a fifty dollar check from AdSense for their readership?  How can a web comic artist be making less than minimum wage with twenty thousand daily readers?  Currently, digital content is monetized with ads, and that's a terrible way to monetize content.  It doesn't account for how much a fan CARES about the content itself.  To an advertiser, every fan is simply a pair of eyeballs, and ALL eyeballs are worth 1/1000 of a CPM.  However, some fans would be more than willing to support a creator monetarily for creating art that moves them.  On Patreon, many of our creators are literally making 100x their ad revenue - this might sound surprising, but that's how BROKEN the current ad based monetization system is.  Content monetization is a HUGE problem, and Patreon is fixing it.

(2) How are you different from your competitors?

Patreon doesn't have many competitors right now.  Recurring payments wrapped inside crowdfunding is an entirely new space.  Patreon takes it a step further by matching crowdfunding with media consumption.  The only competitor that is employing a similar concept is a company called Subbable, founded by the brilliant and thoughtful Hank Green.  Subbable is similar to Patreon but the reward structure employs the concept of a "perk bank," which allows backers to account for their cumulative donations and be rewarded with physical merchandise.

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

We are succeeding because there are very few companies that actually cut creators a check at the end of each month.  When creators learn about a service that PAYS them for making art, the adoption of that service is rapid and fervent.  There are thousands of services that help creators "grow” or "engage" their fans.  Very few services are actually increasing the bottom line for creators.

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

Paying creators every month is what makes us unique.  What I enjoy most, outside of building Patreon, is making videos and music, and using our product to get paid for doing what I love!

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

The most exciting digital media trend right now is the inevitable move BACK to patronage.  For the last 100 years, patronage has been off everyone's radar.  Because artists were able to record their work and sell it as a physical product, patronage became unnecessary.  But now, because media has been digitized, because self-publishing is possible through social media, and because physical product sales are declining, patronage is re-emerging as the dominant source of income for artists.  This shift is inevitable, and it's already happening, right now.