Get Paid. Get Published. Change the World.
Are you a pro or semi pro videographer that has had the chance to watch an amazing news story unfold before your eyes, but have no way to get it to top traditional media firms quickly and efficiently? Cont3nt is a DC based startup that is changing the way freelance photographers are getting their content to top media firms.
It can take major news networks hours if not days to prepare to source a story, and hundres of thousands of dollars. With Cont3nt the citizen journalists can jump on the news in minutes rather than hours or days. Thousands of amazing stories go unheard every day and media companies are forced to go out of business.
Cont3nt offers a variety of methods for selling content on the site to freelance journalists. A journalist can decide if he or she wants to sell an exclusive piece to one outlet or license it to several. It's a great market for entrepreneurial media that is connecting the little guys to the big guys and allowing them to sell directly - no middleman required.
Learn more about Cont3nt from the Co-Founder & CEO, Anton Gelman.
What inspired you to start your company?
My family emigrated to the USA as refugees from the Soviet Union - they did this because they wanted to live in a free society founded on the principles of open markets and a free press. This has served as the basis for this endeavor.
Years later I wanted to be a photographer, but had to quit because it is so hard to make a living doing it. Some time later, I was working for the National Geographic Society helping build their web platforms and online communities, and realized that big media companies had the exact same problems. I finally decided to quit after an enterprise collaboration project I built went global.
Later, I joined up with my partner - a professional news-cameraman, who had built a system for his own distribution and had been improving it for years. We combined the two and created a product that works for both little guys and big media organizations end-to-end.
Cont3nt.com was founded as a free market for a free press. Our platform enables content creators to get paid for their work, sell on their own terms, and enables an infrastructure of journalism to take root worldwide.
Tell us something unique about you and your co-founder?
My partner and I met at the NAB conference in Las Vegas a few months after the company was founded, something clicked, and we partnered up within 24hrs. Every year since we take an annual pilgrimage to that conference and celebrate our "anniversary" with a meal of Alaskan king-crab at the all-you-can-eat buffet in the Paris casino.
Tell us about your product or service
Cont3nt.com is taking on the Associated Press to create the first real-time marketplace for breaking photo and video journalism. Our e-commerce platform enables a reporter in Libya, Syria, or Occupy Wall Street to sell their breaking news footage to the BBC or their local paper and have it published in a half-hour.
It's like eBay for breaking news.
What problem does your product or service solve?
Media runs on content, and breaking news video and photo are incredibly valuable - but only if buyer and seller can connect in time, and right now they can't. Buyers can't buy, sellers can't sell. Meanwhile, thousands of amazing stories go unheard every day and media companies are going out of business because content creation costs more than they can make back.
We make journalism pay by connecting media companies with content creators in real time, and allowing them to buy and sell breaking news video and photo. We enable them to sell privately through our platform, or publicly through Twitter. They decide the terms, they keep control of their rights, and they keep 95% of the profit.
What are your startup's three biggest challenges to growth?
Our biggest challenges are:
1. On-board our growing backlog of customers
2. Gain more press coverage and build awareness of our product - particularly in the news-holes around the world where we have already started to make in-roads.
3. Fill out our current seed funding round in the next few weeks.
How has the Startup America Partnership helped you overcome these challenges to growth?
We entered the Startup America Pitch Competition and won it. Our win enabled us to win/be-featured by two more conferences and gave us incredible press and connections. Startup America opened a lot of doors!
What Startup America Member Benefits have you used?
We have been to numerous events by Startup America as well as entering their Pitch Competition. We are planning on taking advantage of a lot of the partner offers as well.
Why should startups join Startup America?
Startup America is an awesome organization that is helping unify and promote the entrepreneurial culture in the USA and doing a tremendous amount to bring legitimacy and recognition to the process of building a startup (as well as helping entrepreneurs in many practical ways).
If you are serious about building a company, the first thing you should do is join the biggest network of entrepreneurs in the country. It's a no-brainer.
What is the startup culture like in your City/State?
Washington DC has a startup culture that has exploded in size and depth the past few years. We are quickly on our way to become the third biggest startup hub after SF and NYC. Go DC!
Cont3nt.com is not just a company, it is a mission - we are trying to build a global free market for a free press. Our mission is to enable untold stories could finally be seen by the world and get the content creators paid. Join us!
Learn more and connect with Cont3nt here: Cont3nt.com | @contenteconomy
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