The Economist, which doesn’t typically profile start-ups, just published a great profile on Pluto TV entitled “Changing the Channel”. Check it out here. Great work by my partner Ken Parks.

Great write up on the LA start-up scene with some nice love for Pluto TV!

http://www.builtinla.com/blog/50-la-tech-startups-watch-2015

From the intro:

“Some of the trends we expect to see to hit the scene in 2015 are: gamification of celebrities; the transition from TV Networks to Internet networks like YouTube and Pluto TV, and the growth of brand-centric e-commerce”

And here’s the piece about us:

“Pluto TV

Pluto.TV is where you go to watch TV on the Internet. The website allows people to flip through channels and discover and consume the best video content the web has to offer. Oh, and it’s interesting to mention that Pluto.TV organized in a way similar to what you’d see on that old, dusty box also known as a television. On Pluto.TV, a user has access to nothing short of a variety of channels from Funny or Die to Business News to channels dedicated to weed and children, separately of course. The service streams 24/7 on any device. Similar to traditional cable, the content isn’t quite “on demand” — a user can’t select future programming to watch, they can only watch shows as they’re playing live (but there are options for rewinding and fast-forwarding within that show block). But like DVR, you can record future programming.

Tuned In, Ready To Turn Up: Last November, Pluto.TV raised $13 million in Series A Funding.”

Paresh Dave wrote a great story about Pluto TV in the LA Times.  We made the cover of the business section.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-1205-pluto-tv-20141205-story.html#page=1

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2014-10-25/are-aggregators-bringing-a-better-bargain

Very excited for my colleagues at Smule who just raised over $16M to accelerate their global expansion. The company has been on a tear lately and I couldn’t be happier for the team.

http://www.cnet.com/news/smule-the-hottest-weirdest-start-up-you-may-not-know-q-a/

I'm excited to announce a new project we launched today -  Twitter Tees by Threadless.  We've brought the Threadless crowdsourcing model for t-shirts to the Twitter
community.  Twitter Tees will feature notable tweets submitted and
voted on by Twitter users, with art direction and design of each shirt
by the in-house creative team at Threadless.  We've already gotten some nice coverage by Mashable, BrandWeek, and O'Reilly.

Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter, originally reached out to us in early
January regarding some Twitter logo tees they were interested in
producing.  Here at Threadless, we had already been refining a strategy
to bring crowdsourcing to other vibrant communities, so the timing was
perfect.  In February, Biz invited us to speak to the Twitter team at
their San Francisco office about Threadless and crowdsourcing.  It was
great to exchange ideas with their team and they really liked our idea
for enabling any
Twitter user to submit and vote on tweets to make the best Twitter
Tees.  Once we decided to move forward, our team here at Threadless did
a great job taking this project from concept to live site in a very
short time.  The Twitter API provided a great platform for developing a richly integrated site, and Biz Stone and his colleague Maggie Utgoff were incredibly supportive.

Here's how it works.  After logging into
the site using your Twitter credentials, you can instantly access your
own tweets and submit them for consideration.  You can also nominate
others' tweets for consideration, and you can vote on any tweets
submitted to determine if they are worthy of being printed as a
Twitter Tee.  Importantly, in respect of your privacy, you must approve
any tweet of yours that someone else has nominated before it is
eligible for voting.  Also, in respect of your time/messaging
preferences, you can choose to approve all, deny all or review each
nomination on a case-by-case basis.  Tweets from protected Twitter
accounts are not eligible for nomination or submission.  Each week
we'll print two new Twitter Tees, based on community vote.  If your own
tweet is selected you will receive $500 and if you are first to
nominate a successful tweet you will receive $140.

We launched the site with four great Twitter-themed tees from existing tweets:

"I'm huge on Twitter" by @xenijardin

"140 is the new 420" by @mutgoff

"In space no one can hear you tweet" by @LouisTrapani

"The messaging system we didn't know we needed until we had it" by @biz

I
can't wait to see which tweets the community submits and votes up in
the coming weeks, but I expect them to be as diverse and varied as the
conversations happening constantly on Twitter.  Please check out the site and submit, nominate and vote on some tweets!  I'd love to get your feedback.

We've been working hard over the past few months here at SkinnyCorp, and I am proud of our team and our recent accomplishments. 

First, we recently launched a new site for each of our four key tee shirt brands: Threadless (user-submitted and rated designs); TypeTees (user-submitted and rated slogans); Select (established artist designs curated by Threadless); and Threadless Kids (popular Threadless designs for kids and babies).  Previously, only Threadless and Threadless Kids had their own sites.  This new structure provides each brand its own unique space where it can grow, be promoted and speak to its distinct audience.  At the same time, the universal navigation bar at the top of each site and other cross-site promotional aspects, give each site the support of being part of the Threadless family.  And with a single shopping cart, you can shop seamlessly across sites, with one integrated check out.  I think all four sites look great, and I believe that this "separate but together" strategy will benefit each.  Personally, I find submitting and rating slogans on TypeTees to be addictive.  I guess it's because I couldn't design a compelling art tee shirt to save my life, but I'm still up for the challenge of submitting an original idea and seeing if the community will deem my slogan worthy of printing.

Second, Select recently partnered with design/technology icon John Maeda and the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), where Maeda recently became President, to curate a series of four stunning designs from RISD professors.  The "RISD Collection" includes: Renaissance Beauty by illustration professor Trent Burleson; The Journey by industrial design professor Soojung Ham; Nature vs Nurture by graphic design professor Nancy Skolos; and Ouroboros '08 by illustration professor Randy Willier.  Part of the proceeds from the RISD Collection support a $15,000 donation made by Select to the RISD Scholarship Fund. 

Third, we opened our first Threadless Kids physical store today.  The store is located at 1905 West Division in a great little shopping district in the Wicker Park section of Chicago.  Well before the severity of the economic crisis became apparent, we took a cost-conscious approach of doing more with less.  Not only were we able to launch a beautiful, engaging shopping experience on a budget, but we believe that the Threadless brand and spirit are more truly conveyed by this design than by expensive build outs that were originally considered.

The team here at SkinnyCorp has done a great job on all these initiatives.  I am lucky to be working with such a talented, passionate bunch.

One last update that might interest you is that we just launched a MASSIVE month-long holiday sale today.  There are big discounts on items across all four sites, and we'll be unveiling a new promotional "gift" on each of the next three Mondays.  Enjoy!