Graspr, Inc., (DEMOfall 07) a Mountain View CA instructional video syndicator, has raised $2.5 million in Series A funding from Draper Fisher Jurvetson and undisclosed angel investors and announced an alliance with start-up YuMe, Inc., which specializes in serving advertisements to online videos, and a basic video editor for consumers.
"The syndication strategy is the path I've always pursued. We never intended to be a destination site," said Teresa Phillips, founder and chief executive officer. "Our launch at DEMO was a forcing function to create core features and make a splash to bring people out of the woodwork. Then we went dark building our product and platform. We've been creating demand."
For the past year or so, Graspr's team has been reaching out to hobbyists who want to turn a passion into a career and professionals in various fields who want to extend what they do and develop new income sources, she said.
"We've been building brand and building audience," said Phillips, a former executive of Yahoo and Time Warner.
Graspr is working with 200 individuals as publishers in 17 categories of subject interest and expects to grow this year to about 2,000. For example, the startup researched 2,300 cooking sites and whittled them down to 1,200 who are likely to embed their cooking publisher’s videos on their mostly text-based sites, she said.
"There's a demand for many levels of content for learners and we don't know yet where the market shakes out," Phillips said.
To help amateurs improve their homegrown video production, Graspr created a basic video editing tool that lets users add narration, titles, transitions, and other simple features to improve quality.
Graspr pays publishers a share of ad revenues. Its partner YuMe of Redwood City, CA is gaining traction. In June, Microsoft began using YuMe to match advertisements with online videos. The company's small sales force works with advertisers to build ads that feed into its network of Web sites with videos, such as NBC Universal’s NBC Direct site, and about 400 smaller independent Web sites. YuMe's small software program downloads onto a consumer’s computer to help the company analyze which ads would be best suited for a given video. The YuMe service then can automatically serve an ad with the video.
Phillips said unlike competitors, Graspr works with video producers on search engine optimization, branding, improving content, and distribution. One potential instructional video competitor is Howcast, whose former Google and YouTube founders in February attracted $8 million in a Series A round. Howcast focuses on creating scripts and video production.
Phillips said Graspr's strategy includes giving consumer and prosumer producers more tools, what she calls "business in a box" to help them become more successful and attract both advertisers and audience.
Phillips' passion for reaching people who want to learn with video was born from personal experience.
“My son was born three and a half months early, and I spent hours online researching and trying to learn how to take care of a baby born so severely premature. The lessons learnt and shared with other people were extremely powerful and comforting. The experience changed me, and it led directly to Graspr. What we’re doing is creating a platform and vehicle for people with valuable knowledge and expertise to help them externalize and package their know-how, so we can make it more affordable and accessible to people who need it. So, my little son was the genesis of a big idea that has become Graspr.”
