Beantown Showdown: Maven vs. Brightcove

Jeremy Allaire was an adviser to enterprise video startup Maven Networks before he stepped down to start Brightcove. He promised Brightcove would be a whole different beast. But later, Maven evolved its products to be more web-based like Brightcove’s. Meanwhile, Brightcove tried making a consumer-facing product, but soon ditched those efforts in favor of focusing on its original corporate customer base. So now the two companies, both based in Cambridge, Mass., directly compete to provide online video publishing services to media firms.

It’s the makings of a great story, one that was written by Scott Kirsner in the Boston Globe this weekend.

[Maven CEO Hilmi] Ozguc concedes, “We’ve spoken very little. On a personal level, I think he’s a swell guy, and I can afford to be that way because we’re beating his pants off in most of the sales situations we’re in.”

In an email, Kirsner nicely attributed some of the inspiration for his story to a piece we did earlier this year that briefly mentioned the overlap between the two companies.

Maven is announcing a new product on Monday, an Internet TV ad platform that enables advertising formats like video overlays, dynamic ad insertion, and forecasting tools. Previously customers were limited to pre-roll and post-roll spots. But to be fair, Brightcove’s roster of advertising offerings is also quite extensive.