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.

Comments (6)

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 — 8:24 AM on April 17, 2008 Reply
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 — 2:51 PM on April 17, 2008 Reply
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 — 12:05 PM on April 18, 2008 Reply
Thanks Paul, we definitely appreciate the effort on Digg! You are NTV MVP today.

Liz Gannes, NewTeeVee — 12:07 PM on April 18, 2008 Reply
Kate Modern is a peice of shit… but cash made by shit like that gives me hope in life :D

Josh — 8:46 AM on April 21, 2008 Reply
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 — 6:57 AM on May 5, 2008 Reply

Linkbacks (12)

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

lonelygirl15 raises $5M for new company… — 6:55 PM on April 17, 2008
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 — 2:59 AM on April 18, 2008
[...] WTF?http://newteevee.com/2008/04/17/lonelygirl15katemodern-team-raises-5m/” rel=”dc:source&#… [...]

FuzzLinks.com » lonelygirl15/KateModern… — 4:22 AM on April 18, 2008
[...] 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… — 5:56 PM on April 18, 2008
[...] Gap Year next week. Perhaps EQAL wanted to define a project more on its own terms now that it is a venture-funded company. However, it had a pretty good thing going with Bebo, since the social network had handled [...]

KateModern to Conclude, But Why? «… — 10:55 AM on May 12, 2008
[...] up their sleeves. Today at CBS’ upfront a major partnership between the network and the just-funded startup was [...]

CBS Will Lonelygirlize its TV Shows «… — 2:42 PM on May 14, 2008
[...] Italian series news follows on EQAL’s raising $5 million, wrapping up KateModern, and signing a “first-look” deal with CBS. Beckett said that [...]

lonelygirl15 Goes to Italy « NewTeeVee — 11:32 PM on June 3, 2008
[...] is writing a feature film for Universal Studios. Even the lg15 crew changed their name to EQAL, raised $5 million and signed a deal with [...]

Why There Won’t Be Another lonelygirl… — 8:40 AM on August 1, 2008
[...] other online video investments include EQAL and [...]

Qik Adds Andreessen’s Money, Advice… — 10:02 PM on August 25, 2008
[...] the meantime, the LG15 creators have raised money for their new company, EQAL, which is a next-generation content studio embracing social and interactive media. [...]

lonelygirl15’s Second Incarnation:… — 12:01 AM on August 27, 2008
[...] 2008 issue of Script Magazine. Their new media production company EQAL recently landed $5 million in financing and a big contract with [...]

space shank media - blog - archive »… — 8:02 AM on October 1, 2008
[...] able to create profiles, discuss amongst each other in forums and view episodes. Around the time it raised $5 million in funding last year, EQAL had acquired a white-label social networking platform. It used the platform most [...]

EQAL Now Wants to Compete with Ning — 2:10 PM on July 30, 2009