Web video for intellectuals is a hard sell. The videos on Fora.TV come from speeches given by intellectuals and business people. It competes with Big Think, which has a slightly different format.
Will Hearst and Adobe Ventures believe in it enough to put another $2 million into Fora.TV, along with some other unnamed investors. Together, with the $2 million in seed capital they invested last October, the company is counting the total as a $4 million A round. Back in October, CEO Brian Gruber told me that he was hoping to close an additional $5 million in an A round by the end of January. It is now three months later, and Gruber appears to be $3 million short.
He is still in talks with another strategic investor (a media company) to invest another $2 million or so. When is that going to happen? “In the next 60 to 90 days,” he says. So why is he having so much trouble closing the round?
Everyone has trouble closing the round until they close the round.
That’s so Zen, I’m going to put that one up on my wall.