Despite the current market conditions, investors are actually not seeing as much deal flow coming to them, due to COVD 19. “It seems that some entrepreneurs have taken the safe way out and gone back to the corporate grind,” says Theresa Lee, Partner at Astel Ventures.
This means that the Venture Capital world is clamoring for new tech startups and that is especially good news to SaaS developers in the field of media. Why? Because people are at home consuming more content than ever before. Take Matthew Karsten, Founder and CEO of media OTT app Purple Squirrel. Karsten launched the media company in April 2020 when the pandemic forced many businesses, schools and venues to close their doors. With his experience as a teacher, performer and broadcast executive, it was time for a solution for going over the top.
Now, the company bridges the gap for content creators in regional performing arts, education, fitness, lifestyle, fashion, reality, film and local broadcasts all of whom desire more distribution, engagement and the opportunity to monetize their online content.
The share of OTT video subscriptions in the US by market in 2019 estimates that while Netflix, Prime Video and Hulu take the lion’s share share of the multi billion dollar market, there is a 2 billion dollar market cap for new players in niche markets.
An over-the-top (OTT) media service is a streaming media service offered directly to viewers via the Internet. OTT bypasses cable, broadcast, and satellite television platforms, the companies that traditionally act as a controller or distributor of such content.
The term is most synonymous with subscription-based video-on-demand (SVoD) services that offer access to film and television content (including existing series acquired from other producers, as well as original content produced specifically for the service).
When the Startup team at Newchip Accelerator merged the Kojenwa Moitt, CEO at Zebra Public Relations with Karsten’s idea, the two instantly saw value in what the other was doing. “What a real way to put the live content our entrepreneurs, founders and influencers are creating in front of a large audience instantly,” adds Kojenwa. The upshot is the ability to monetize at a rate 10x greater than YouTube. The team at Purple Squirrel is already busy sourcing content creators and ad sponsors for it’s channels. Looks like this is really going to be a network for the people.