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January 21, 2008

Some New Startups Direct To Video

Duncan Riley

36 comments »

We’ve been looking at different ways of using video in relation to startup reviews. I’ve always told people pitching us that they should absolutely have an embeddable demo video because a demonstration speaks louder than any words…and they cant be edited and spun by us either. Another way of using video is for a direct to camera elevator pitch. Here’s a few new startups pitching to camera as part of a small scale test. If you like the idea of direct to video elevator pitches, or hate it, let us know in the comments. I’d note that direct to camera like this is very raw, and hence they’re not that polished, so try not to be too hard on those featured.

Blogonize

This is one very good looking hosted blogging solution that competes with Wordpress.com and TypePad. The founder is 16 as well:



Ubertor

Web site hosting and management for Realtors

ReimagineMemories

Hosted anaologue to digital media service. For $10 a month users can send their old media through and have it converted and uploaded to the site.

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Blogonize
Ubertor
ReimagineMemories
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This entry was posted on Monday, January 21st, 2008 at 8:24 pm and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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  1. Technicle

    January 21st, 2008 at 8:33 pm

    Very respectable newco’s..

  2. Jon

    January 21st, 2008 at 8:45 pm

    I think this is something that has been with us for a while… best of luck to these start-ups, some have some pretty nice looking video presentations.

    Jon
    http://woodmarvels.com - Create Unique Memories

  3. Austin Hallock

    January 21st, 2008 at 8:51 pm

    Thanks for the mention Duncan!

  4. James

    January 21st, 2008 at 8:59 pm

    I agree… I especially enjoy the videos that show actual users using the site and the emotion it brings to users!

    Like the one with the bloggers using Speeddate (seen on TC - funny) & Sleep.FM’s video of a soldier abroad waking to his daughter’s audio message
    ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-j4-51R2k8 ) .

    I bet we’ll be seeing a lot more of these type of vids!

  5. Brad Jashinsky

    January 21st, 2008 at 9:04 pm

    Thank you Duncan for mentioning us, and embedding our video. I think it’s so great that you and TechCrunch are giving exposure to start-ups. Apart from the great exposure it also allows for great feedback from a large demographic with various personalities. It is great for visitors too, because just from this one post I’ve already discovered two great start-ups I’ve never been exposed to before. I can’t wait to see future posts.

    Thanks again,

    -Brad

  6. Sarah Meyers

    January 21st, 2008 at 9:09 pm

    @James- you mean the SpeedDate video where I ask Eric Eldon of Venture Beat if he is a geeky blogger? That was great.

    @Duncan, nice that you are adding a personal touch with video. It makes your blog post 10x better. Every blog that integrates images, graphics, clear/coherent text and informative video is a winner.

    I can’t wait to see Erick’s pitches he was filming at the Crunchies. Here are short pitches from several companies there:

    http://youtube.com/watch?v=9vVc_WZVg6U

  7. Auston

    January 21st, 2008 at 9:14 pm

    I like the concept I just wish I had a wider selection of videos/startups to browse through, if go2web20.net had videos like this, I’d go there and not here.

  8. Duncan Riley

    January 21st, 2008 at 9:23 pm

    Auston
    depending on the reaction we might do more posts like this.

  9. damon

    January 21st, 2008 at 9:29 pm

    to the reimagine guys….

    I clicked on doctrine and some “congrats, you have been selected to win a free apple iphone” added started talking to me …. sound!

    Imagine my surprise when after muting, I started reading and hit doctrine #2…

    No flashing ads, no explicit ads, no slow-loading ads, no large ads, no sounds in ads.

  10. Startup News

    January 21st, 2008 at 9:30 pm

    Good Idea to pitch with videos . Me Likes ..

  11. damon

    January 21st, 2008 at 9:31 pm

    what’s with the 2 cherries on blogonize?

  12. Austin Hallock

    January 21st, 2008 at 9:33 pm

    @Damon, mainly to spruce up the logo and add some color. The two cherries create a notepad/journal in-between them to add to the blog theme.

  13. Troy

    January 21st, 2008 at 9:37 pm

    Hmmmm. Blogonize’s name has bad connotations. I keep thinking Agonzie.

  14. Nathan A. Winters

    January 21st, 2008 at 9:37 pm

    I read tech crunch every day/nite… I enjoy all of the awesome coverage they provide and it was nice to see a post like this that not only demonstrates the up and coming start ups but the way we demo and promote our products. I have also been working on both a video demo and ” about us” I was almost wondering if this would be the best way to go and I am now convinced. I am almost wondering if less is more when it comes to quality of the video ?? I think this is pretty sweet. http://www.vimeo.com/246107

  15. Brad Jashinsky

    January 21st, 2008 at 9:38 pm

    Damon,

    Sorry for the irony of hearing the iPod ad after reading our doctrine. I sent in a request to AdBrite to take it off right away. If it isn’t taken off by tomorrow I’ll just pull their ads. Until they resolve it though I’m going to pull them temporarily. They had been pretty good making sure those annoying ads were not coming through, but this free iPod one is just beyond annoying and tacky.

    Thank you for letting us know and sorry for the bad first impression,

    -Brad

  16. lawrence

    January 21st, 2008 at 9:39 pm

    what’s not to love about it?
    i like the addition of videos, it creates a genuine soul to the story.

    but since when has TC written about ‘genuine’ shoestring startups, i assume and it looks like that’s what these guys are?

    i thought TC only covered the farts and sneezes of tech titans.

  17. Brad Jashinsky

    January 21st, 2008 at 9:44 pm

    Damon,

    I just took the AdBrite ads off so no more annoying Free iPod ads. Thank you again for letting us know, and sorry for having to hear that annoying ad come out of your speakers.

    -Brad

  18. yongfook

    January 21st, 2008 at 10:54 pm

    some editorial to go with the vids might be nice.

    Seems a bit lazy to just stick up a video that you’ve had sent to you with a one line “this service is XYZ” explanation. Lets hear what you actually think about the content and the presenters, hm?

  19. sandra possing

    January 21st, 2008 at 11:30 pm

    Wow. Great article, great tips for us startups to use video demos, and great startups that you highlighted. Thanks!

  20. Roman

    January 21st, 2008 at 11:35 pm

    general concept is good, but the videos are slightly too long.
    20 second elevator pitch should be enough, 40 second max. and screen shots like in the first video should be required, otherwise defeats the purpose of “watching,” might as well listen to an mp3.

    Nice to see down to earth people pitching, and not some annoying corporate types using cliches.

  21. P-Air

    January 21st, 2008 at 11:51 pm

    very refreshing to see this humble group of entrepreneurs going for it. they all spoke clearly and even though it would have been nice to see more screen grabs or demos (which only Blogonize did), it was nice to hear their elevator pitches. yes, this is a good format and might be nice as a weekly feature.

  22. Gabriel

    January 21st, 2008 at 11:59 pm

    I pretty much liked what you wanted to do with this article but… As in vator.tv, I wouldnt like to have a bunch of geeks pitching their ideas in sort of an endless list calling for help and promotion…

    I love this experiment, the concept and I totally agree that the elevator pitch should be less than a minute.

    But for upcoming posts…PLEASE Do not forget that the cool thing about techcrunch is that someone else “wiser” does the research and they ease a review for us, in other words bring us startups TV or a better format not so amateur…. so I do NOT follow up the idea of putting us to watch the best homemade pitch and rank it or using us as guinea pigs for their good… keep it simple and review only the best of the net.

  23. Kedric Van de Carr

    January 22nd, 2008 at 12:12 am

    My Name is Kedric and I work for a company called vator.tv We allow companies to upload their video elevator pitches to our website and create profiles for their startup companies. Venture Capitalists and Angels then come to our site to find great companies that are gaining traction to fund or partner with. We make starting a company much easier, because we help you gain exposure, communicate your progress to the people that fund you and facilitate connections to help grow your business.

    check us out at http://www.vator.tv

  24. window server hosting

    January 22nd, 2008 at 3:31 am

    It all depends how well you demonstrate things and do best presentation to impress your audience.

  25. scratchiti

    January 22nd, 2008 at 9:21 am

    can’t seem to find his app on facebook

  26. scratchiti

    January 22nd, 2008 at 9:21 am

    nevermind, looks like search is just busted right now

  27. Kris Colt

    January 22nd, 2008 at 9:36 am

    Definitely gives a more personal feel to the pitch. I’ve never had a blog, but I am absolutely going to try this out now that I saw that kid pitching it himself

  28. Adam

    January 22nd, 2008 at 11:02 am

    The company I work for has created a video messaging product called motionnotes. It allows user to create a personal video message and also attach additional content like videos, photos, and slideshows. This would be a great tool to use for an elevator pitch.

    Here is a link to a few examples http://motionnotes.com/samples.php

  29. Austin Hallock

    January 22nd, 2008 at 12:17 pm

    @Troy, It’s more of “Revolutionize” ;)

  30. ettore

    January 22nd, 2008 at 2:02 pm

    I’d like to see more of the website “in action” than the founder face. The most interesting point would be the typical use cases of the website (or whatever product the startup is offering).

  31. Julian

    January 22nd, 2008 at 2:27 pm

    Great update guys, I really liked this. Mostly for the fact that some of these new co’s don’t have huge budgets to get their site out to everyone, and posts like this give good exposure to some of the ‘underdog’ apps.

  32. Tom Lyons

    January 22nd, 2008 at 2:42 pm

    I love this type of post. To see the actual developer or founder talking and pitching the site, it’s great.

  33. Andy

    January 22nd, 2008 at 3:22 pm

    This is terrible. Text is much easier to consume.

  34. Steve Jagger

    January 22nd, 2008 at 3:33 pm

    Hi Duncan,
    Thanks for including us in the post. I appreciate the exposure to your readers.
    Steve

  35. Michael Goldstein

    January 23rd, 2008 at 4:36 pm

    Interesting article. Here’s an elevator pitch we shot a few weeks back. I’d have liked to polished it a bit but it was just a quickie. The business of social media is evolving very quickly so perhaps I’ll redo it in the coming months.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBCiGxXQDHI

    Best,
    Michael Goldstein
    http://www.stunmedia.com/whois/michael-goldstein/

  36. chrisco

    January 24th, 2008 at 11:52 am

    Nice one, Auston. We can’t even print what I was doing when I was 16.

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