Put new startup DanceJam, a “YouTube for dance videos” down for another $3.5 million, bringing their total to $4.5 million raised. They’ve closed a Series B round of financing from Softbank Capital, Rustic Canyon Partners and a number of new angel investors. Note that I am an investor in this startup.
The company, founded by M.C. Hammer and Flock’s Geoffrey Arone and Anthony Young, is in private beta but should be launching shortly. Users will be able to upload short clips of themselves dancing; other users can rate those clips. Aggregate votes will be used to show top dancers by geography and dance type around the the country and the world.
In addition to the funding and the upcoming public launch, the company says they’ve signed a number of key business development deals to assist with distribution and marketing.
Wired Magazine wrote a good overview of the company here.
with all due respect to hammer (that i actualy like and respect) I do not think this venture has a chance to grow, i give it 2 – 3 years max.
I just dont see it working.
good luck to hammer though.
LOL, wow – amazing! How long does a private beta for a dance site take anyway!?
I’m sure Suge Knight will be knocking on Hammer’s door (and yours) when/if the site ends up taking off.
LOL, and the link to the site is bad!
http://www.dancejame.com/
Except that you can already find plenty of videos of people dancing or giving dance lessons on youtube.
I am in the private beta and it is amazing. I had doubts too, but it just works and is cool. Not so much like youtube actually.
I thought that youtube clones had already had their day. Apparently not. Add this one to the deadpool and keep writing about Facebook.
U CAN’T FUND THIS!
dance is huge. Get your heads out of your silicon valley asses!
I’d too in a washed up, one-hit wonder. Mostly because he owns TechCrunch.
these guys were at tc40 in the demopit. I got a demo from Hammer and it looked cool. It was more like competitions and battles than YouTube. It was well designed, but I agree it’s not gonna be easy. I tried to get on the beta but never got off the list. I wouldn’t bet against the Hammer on this one!
Good to see Hammer doing something but with honesty it always amazes me when companies like this get so much funding.
Perhaps somebody can introduce me to some of these money men who are so keen to dish out their money.
This will die in a few months.
Isn’t there already a “YouTube for dance videos”?
It’s called YouTube and its up and running now at http://youtube.com/
Regrettably my daughters spend far too much time in front of YouTube trying to learn latest dance crazes like “Superman,” “SlipSlide,” “Wu Tang Hop,” and the ever popular “Anaphylactic Seizure Samba.”
Any parent will tell you this is a site/service their children sill spend too much time on.
Hammer, don’t hurt ‘em!
Is this a joke? This is going to be the VC and online Video equivalent of “jumping the shark”. Has to be one of the downright dumbest ideas in recent memory. Why in the world – and how in the world – did this idea get from pitch to funding.
What’s interesting here is that if the programming direction of this concept has legs, it should see fairly rapid viral take up. Hence, I have to ask the question, why didn’t the current round of investors wait until market launch and wait a few months? This would have been better for all, founders, VC investors, and the investors in the VC’s.
Dancing has been a part of mankind from the beginning, hence it isn’t going away. Simply look at the tv success of the lame “Dancing with the Stars”, which continues to get good ratings. So conceptually, it could work even with dancing videos being available on YouTube. It could also prove more intriguing to the urban audience if the video is any indication.
Best of luck to DanceJam.
People put money into this YAVSS? You can’t surprise me anymore. Not a dime for real web 2.0 applications for professional trades, and now this?
Yoikes!
that’s funny just learned the supaman last week so can’t hate on this LOL. Luck to hammer its a cool vision.
This is 10x better than edgeio.
think about how many people thought DanceDanceRevolution was a stupid idea. Dance is huge, i don’t personally get it, but it is huge and it hits the myspace demographic.
good call Mike!
This company is Flop(or going to get flopped)! Mark my word guys…
why you need so much $ to create a group in youtube.
why don’t you give youtube those 5 millions and ask them to create a group? i think they would do it, probably 1/2 of the money.
How is this supposed to make money?
The concept looks cool, but to get a financing like that, I’m surprised and wonder what would be the exit strategy for the investors. Also, what’s the revenue model?
Anyway, best of luck to Dancejam and MC Hammer ♪
Almost forgot…Stanley, if you succeed, don’t get an entourage like you did in your previous career.
Do a google search for “dance” – I hope they aren’t planning an adsense revenue model.
Mike, you have a niche for funding awesomely terrible ideas. What’s the name of that pet social network you’re an investor in?
As the kids already said, how about a YouTube branded channel. Wait a second, I think I’m on to something…brb
1999: “X will be the eBay for Y.”
2007: “X will be the YouTube for Y videos.”
In 1999, X always = eBay….
DanceJam is two years late to the show.
Mr. Arrington, I believe you’re an investor in this startup no?
@26
“Note that I am an investor in this startup.”
Read the f-in article
Umm…I must be missing something. Isn’t this basically a search term on YouTube, not a separate site? Dunno…maybe they can build a community around it somehow but it is hard to see why folks wouldn’t just use YouTube. special features coming? don’t hurt us hammer – give us something.
To all the haters out there, you’re all just racist. Why do you want to deny black people a place to hang out on the internet? Dancejam is brilliant.
1983: Who’d watch a channel that only showed music video!
Hi,
It might not work, but those who don’t see any potential are blinded by your dogma!
This is the hip-hop demographic, one of the biggest ones out there.
Established companies like to pay premium prices to be related to such a valuable audience in the form of advertising and sponsorship.
The same demographic spends the most time online.
Compare the classification and discovery system on Youtube to what dancejam will have.
$5million for this company, that once it gets its core, could expand beyond, not unlike viacom/mtvn -and you guys are absolutely sure this is a bad investment??????
Yours kindly,
Shakir Razak
Well ..It may work
This is a niche site just like Porntube or is it pornotube and uporn are niche sites .. You have a channel on tv for Music … How about one for just news .
Wait ..Isn’t there one for Cooking or Food
How about one for just stocks
Emm let me see there is are some that show only cartoons
Errr There is one called BET
Hmm ..what about the Travel channel and the Health channel and the Cop channel and the ……..WELL U GET THE MESSAGE
In less than a month YouTube could add whatever extra functionality this site offers and target tens of new niche markets.
The reason porntube (or is it pornotube? no one who hasn’t actually visited knows for sure) exists is because youtube doesn’t serve that market.
Techcrunch is lame company. I hated went Techcrunch always write same catch phase “Note that I am an investor…”
Why can’t you at least say something insulting to us(Techcrunch guys like us) like “Hahaha. I owned DanceJam shares. You jerks don’t own one! I enjoy jackhammering MC hammer’s butthole.”
I just raised a kabillion dollars and I made sure that my PR company does some webraiding. That’s the official term by the way for posting positive comments against the negs.
“I am in the private beta and it is amazing. I had doubts too, but it just works and is cool. Not so much like youtube actually.”
yes, i work there too, not so much like youtube, other than people can upload video and watch it and belong to the community and of course its different too in that it only has less than 0.001% of the traffic.
” Adolf bin Streisand
Regrettably my daughters spend far too much time in front of YouTube trying to learn latest dance crazes like “Superman,”
“SlipSlide,” “Wu Tang Hop,” and the ever popular “Anaphylactic Seizure Samba.”
Any parent will tell you this is a site/service their children sill spend too much time on.
Hammer, don’t hurt ‘em!”
Yeah, I am really named after a german dictator, but mainly ‘cos the research staff are so young and they never paid attention in history and think adolf is a cool name. Hey , Adolf Stalin that would be an uber cool name to make up next time.
They are on google now and researchign “Funky Chicken” and “Moonwalk” so they will be up now as they pretend to be a hip dad.
“Dancing has been a part of mankind from the beginning, hence it isn’t going away. Simply look at the tv success of the
lame “Dancing with the Stars”, which continues to get good ratings. So conceptually, it could work even with
dancing videos being available on YouTube. It could also prove more intriguing to the urban audience if the video
is any indication.”
Prostitution is even older and hey, that is good ratings too! But true, lets find some “lame” TV shows that have good rating and take them from broadcast and put them online, that has to work !
I was talking to some urban people the other day and asked them if they were intrigued, they pistol whipped me with a 9 and robbed me so I never found out.
even youtube hasn’t made money yet, why are ppl still going in?
How about a facebook app called dancebook? it can crush dancejam just like dogbook crushed dogster. this is ludicrous. arrington, put your money in bonds or give it away, but please spare us from watching you light it on fire.
BUBBLE.
Yeah Hammer was everywhere at TC40… every corner we turned there he was it seemed. THough we didnt run into him at the Crunchies.
Maybe Hammer you could lend your voice and start waking up some of my users?
Sorry dude, dont think you will see much of an ROI on this one…
I think a lot of you are underestimating the amount of time this demographic spends online, and what their interests are. Turn on the TV, this is a craze and its pervasive.
This demographic is hot and the advertising possibilities are huge. Music (Hip Hop), Clothing (Under Armour, Sean John, etc.) , Sneakers (Nike, etc.), Cars (Chrysler 300M), etc. It’s a lifestyle site that advertisers will want to be a part of.
Open your minds people — you might make some money.
I also suppose many of you thought Edgeio was a better investment than this one….
why not give it to charity?
@39 Marzipan
I want you to go over to Oakland and find out how many of those kids know about Dancejam or TechCrunch even. Please report back to us if you don’t have a few bullet holes in your rear end.
Hey VCs, I have a kangaroo jumping videos site that has a huge potential to be exremely profitable. I’m feeling generous today so you’ll be allowed to make bids for financing. First come first serve, minimum bid $2mln.
OH MIKE NOT AGAIN
…..
I have a site shows dog running. People can rate which dog runs fastest,and has the best runnig stye. They can rate them by dog type, locations… etc.
Actaully, I also have a site for hamesters and cats and ….
@Startup News: No, no, no, no, no. Porn is an entity unto itself. If YouTube let porn on their site? They’d be raking in the cash. Porn will always support itself. Always, always, always. Maybe DanceJam should add a section for EXOTIC dance. Look! I found a revenue model!
But, perhaps because dancing is something that happens in the here and now, nobody has figured out how to tap the trend and build a true online destination.
This demographic is hot and the advertising possibilities are huge. Music (Hip Hop), Clothing (Under Armour, Sean John, etc.) , Sneakers (Nike, etc.), Cars (Chrysler 300M), etc. It’s a lifestyle site that advertisers will want to be a part of.
@41
Nice racist attitude – you are a real piece of work. Just because you see a couple of black kids dancing on the video you assume the demographic is an Oakland project. This is very telling.
If and when you acquire a second brain cell, you might be able to see that hip hop and dance is more prevalent than something that is found on a street corner in Oakland.
Why don’t you go to YouTube and search for “Soulja Boy” and then look at the types of people in the videos and the houses, neighborhoods, and schools they are dancing around in.
Then come back here and apologize to the world for being a judgmental and racist moron.
i can’t wait for this site to come out. Marzipan, good call on the advertising ideas.
@44
I am extremely interested in investing in DogRunning. Our VC firm has a history (5 years) of investing (gambling) in cutting edge (whatever) ideas that come across our desks.
I’d also like to explore the possibility of advertising on the dog collars and dog leashes, as well as possibly fitting the dogs with LCD screen jackets with wi-fi connections that can deliver targeted advertising to other dog lovers and lovers of dogs that run.
we just raised (fleeced) $250m from a group of institutional investors, pension funds and wealthy individuals (who didn’t bother to check the returns of the VC industry and realize that unless you invest with the top ten firms, you might as well go long on bonds) so we are ready to GO IPO with you!
BTW, have you thought about which letters you’d like to use for your ticker symbol on the NASDAQ? I like DR, short for DogRunning….let’s discuss on a videochat.