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."

5 Questions with Woven Digital President Colin Digiaro -- My Exclusive Q&A

Woven Digital is a millennial-focused digital-first new media company, producing and distributing pop culture content (breaking news, original reporting, entertainment and video) to nearly 5 million users per day.  Before last week, Woven was still a bit “under the radar," although the company reaches 90 million users per month and attracted more unique visitors than digital media darlings Vice and Vox in October (with content like UPROXX, one of the largest millennial focused news and entertainment sites on the web -- and BroBible, the largest male focused college lifestyle destination).  That stealthy-profile changed when the LA-based company (founded in 2010) announced a few days back that it had raised $18 million in Series A financing led by Institutional Venture Partners (IVP).  That’s a lot of money to expand its content development, production and distribution capabilities.

I was already impressed by Woven Digital even before this new financing round, after I spent some time at their offices a couple months back and met with President Colin Digiaro.  With news of the new financing just breaking, Colin’s Q&A below is particularly relevant.  So, onto the 5 questions and onto learning more about yet another hot LA-based content-driven digital media company.

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

The company was founded in 2010 in response to a void we saw in the market where not many traditional male focused print publications were translating well into digital. We felt the young male audience was underserved and no large media company had effectively pushed into digital for this key demographic.  We knew the audience was massive and the opportunity was even bigger.

As our business has evolved, it was a natural progression to move beyond just the male

demographic. Today, Woven’s leading online brands have become daily staples for young

consumers by focusing on their core passions and interests. Woven provides them with

shareable breaking news, original reporting, entertainment, and video. UPROXX is now the largest entertainment news site geared toward millennials, and BroBible is now the largest young male college lifestyle site. 

Many companies are focusing on how millennials will consume content especially around mobile and video. We want to be at the forefront of programming for millennials and delivering the things they want to watch, consume, and learn about.

(2) How are you different from your competitors?

We truly reach a massive millennial audience and are engaging with them each and every day.  We realize not only is this audience well informed and passionate about pop culture, but they are also underserved.  We are succinctly filling this programming void.

Our business is rooted in the knowledge and understanding of what our audience cares about and their consumption patterns. The quality and authentic nature of our editorial and video programming combined with our scale, differentiates Woven in the digital publishing arena. This approach is validated by our growth – we had more unique visitors that Vox and Vice in October per comScore.

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

The importance of Woven’s expertise in developing and distributing high-quality editorial goes without saying, however the key to us being able to quickly scale has been the heavy investment we’ve made in our technology stack.  We’ve built one unified platform to operate the entire business, which means we have a 360-degree view of the business from one centralized dashboard.  This allows us to tie the performance of every piece of content and every user action into our editorial and video creation process, which not only better informs us about our audience it also enables us to make more accurate decisions.

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

I’ve been an entrepreneur my entire life and have held a deep fascination with digital media and content starting with my childhood when I bought and sold used video games in elementary school.  Looking back, digital content was such an important part of my life even then.  My involvement with digital media grew when I went to go work for my friends online marketing firm.  I was intrigued by how we used data to drive media decisions.  After we sold that company my passion for digital media and  content solidified during my time at MySpace.  We started MySpace and scaled the company to nearly $1B in revenue while delivering content to tens of millions of people around the world. The lessons learned in growing from a start-up to a company worth billions was life-changing, which I was then able to apply to SGN which is now one of the largest gaming companies.  I’ve luckily been able to stay involved in digital media and content my whole life, which is I’d venture to say is unique.

Outside of work it’s all about my wife and kids.  I try and be home at least 3 nights a week for bedtime and make it a priority to pack lunches and do school drop offs every day.  We love spending time together as a family and especially enjoy time together up in the mountains.

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

The evolution of digital content consumption behavior and how programming has changed (lagged) in response are probably most interesting to me.  The widening gap between traditional media companies and the audiences they are becoming increasingly disconnected from is something that will be fascinating to watch unfold.