MindBites Launches
The instructional video space is hot right now, and Austin is homebase for two of the emerging companies in the space; ExpertVillage and MindBites.
In mid-2007 Demand Media (which recently acquired Pluck) bought ExpertVillage. In January, 5Min landed 5Million for their website. Last month former Google Video/YouTubers launched HowCast with an $8M investment. Today, MindBites is launching and announcing $1M in a Series A funding from True Ventures.
True isn’t exactly a household name for Austinites, but they’ve invested in such popular new media companies as Automaticc (makers of Wordpress), GigaOM, Meebo, and Sphere. “We invested in MindBites because it’s a great fit to our existing portfolio of aggressive, new media Web businesses,” said John Burke, General Partner at True Ventures. “We like to identify and support entrepreneurs at the earliest stages of development in the highest-growth segments of the technology market.
While many of the “how-to” websites are going after popular and general knowledge, MindBites is poised to take advantage of the long tail, according to company founder Jason Reneau. The company’s focus is on supporting digital authors, and helping them get their content out to the masses. At first glance, instructional videos on how to replace the motor on your treadmill don’t sound too interesting. But if you happen to have a $2,500 investment in such a treadmill that needs a new motor, it’s well worth the $1.99 to purchase this video. Of the hundreds of thousands of treadmills in the world, how many will need a motor replacement in the next 5 years? This is where the long tail starts to really hit home.
The pricing model is similar to that of iTunes. You can purchase credits for about $1.99 each, and videos cost one credit. At that price point, there is certainly no hesitation to try out a video that might be helpful. Plus the first 60 seconds are a free preview, so you can get a sample of what you’ll be buying. You can watch it on your computer, or download the video to your video iPod or iPhone.
The system was built using the popular rapid development framework Ruby on Rails, and uses Amazon’s S3 storage cloud for storing videos. The rapid development tools must be working well, as major development was just started in January.
The potential market is huge, and there are millions of people in the world with specialized skills that can create video tutorials. According to Founder and CEO Jason Reneau. “Just like eBay let’s you make money off of what’s in your garage, MindBites let’s you make money off what’s in your mind.”
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