Written by Liz Gannes
Posted Thursday, April 17, 2008 at 12:08 AM PT

 

lonelygirl15/KateModern Team Raises $5M

The creators of lonelygirl15 and KateModern — some of the best examples of entertainment that truly uses the web — have formed a company, EQAL (pronounced “equal”) and raised a Series A round of $5 million led by Spark Capital and including Conrad Riggs, Ron Conway, Marc Andreessen and Georges Harik.

Founders Miles Beckett and Greg Goodfried say they have accumulated more than 150 million views for their two series. They explained in a press release,

Formerly LG15 Studios/Telegraph Ave. Productions, the new company name reflects the team’s philosophy of creating shows where the community built around the property is as important as the characters within it. EQAL is also a nod to the power of internet distribution in allowing Hollywood outsiders to have an equal chance to compete with traditional media for audiences.

The pesky thing about VCs is they pressure for you for a return on their investment. So is this really a business opportunity? We’ll talk to Beckett and Goodfried tomorrow.

Further reading:

  • Venture capitalists nearly came to blows about whether it makes sense to invest in content at our NewTeeVee Live conference last fall. One of them was from Spark Capital.
  • Goodfried spoke at one of our Pier Screenings last summer about product integration.

 

Sphere
Topic: Money Power, Startups
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Comments & Trackbacks

  1. There are a lot of people who don’t understand Lonelygirl15 or how smart Miles Beckett and Greg Goodfried really are.

    I have a feeling that when people look back at the adoption of online video and the success of YouTube historians will blame the downfall of mankind on Greg and Miles. ;)

    I can’t wait to see what they do with this money because I’m sure it will end up helping all of us independent producers.

    Tim Street on April 17th, 2008 at 8:24 am - Permalink

  2. this has been dugg. 32 diggs see if you can get some people to digg it.

    http://digg.com/tech_news/lonelygirl15_KateModern_Team_Raises_5M

    still time left.

    social monk on April 17th, 2008 at 2:51 pm - Permalink

  3. [...] [via NewTeeVee] [...]

      lonelygirl15 raises $5M for new company — winandmac.com on April 17th, 2008 at 6:55 pm - Permalink

  4. lonelygirl15/KateModern Team Raises $5M | nerdd.net…

    rnWTF?rnI have a feeling that when people look back at the adoption of online video and the succ…

    nerdd.net | news and opinion on April 18th, 2008 at 2:59 am - Permalink

  5. [...] WTF?http://newteevee.com/2008/04/17/lonelygirl15katemodern-team-raises-5m/” rel=”dc:source&#… [...]

    FuzzLinks.com » lonelygirl15/KateModern Team Raises $5M on April 18th, 2008 at 4:22 am - Permalink

  6. Liz,

    Glad to see that you made it to the frontpage of digg. I was the one the submitted it. If you have a twitter I would love to be friends there:
    http://twitter.com/soloride

    Paul aka social monk

    social monk on April 18th, 2008 at 12:05 pm - Permalink

  7. Thanks Paul, we definitely appreciate the effort on Digg! You are NTV MVP today.

    Liz Gannes on April 18th, 2008 at 12:07 pm - Permalink

  8. [...] to NewTeeVee, the two guys who made Kate Modern and Lonely Girl 15 formed a company and raised $5 million on the [...]

    Running With My Eyes Closed › Did You Hear? on April 18th, 2008 at 5:56 pm - Permalink

  9. Kate Modern is a peice of shit… but cash made by shit like that gives me hope in life :D

    Josh on April 21st, 2008 at 8:46 am - Permalink

  10. I give those guys credit for some impressive realism tactics of marketing however I do not know if they will be able to replicate their success without intervention from whichever sites they promote on

    Teen Quiz on May 5th, 2008 at 6:57 am - Permalink

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