Jimmy Hutcheson: Future of Online Entertainment

>> Vince Thompson: Hi welcome to Dog and Pony. I'm Vince Thompson. If we think of the online video world using analogies from traditional television, we might think of You Tube as a big broadcast network and some of the newer video sites as cable channels. Jimmy Hutcheson, the founder and president of Ego TV describes his business as CNBC for and MTV generation. Tell us about this.

>> Jimmy Hutcheson: We take components from the web and we make original shows. We're a studio and a network. Some of the shows - Dream Jobs with Tom Arnold, Health and Fitness show with Shawna Ferrigno and Lou Ferrigno, and there's a lot of room for professional content creators on the web.

>> Vince Thompson: How do you make money doing this advertising? Do the economics work?

>> Jimmy Hutcheson: Right now they do. The economics work for us because we're really good at two things: good content and traffic.

>> Vince Thompson: Is the trick producing inexpensively?

>> Jimmy Hutcheson: Yes. The economics of it right now are to produce it inexpensively in scale. The biggest concern right now is how talent gets compensated for online. How do you get the really, really zany and bizarre and cool and fun people to come and work on the web? How do you get some of the aliasters to do it?

>> Vince Thompson: Got an interesting idea, an interesting character, you want to introduce people to this guy's life. How does this change online? What's different?

>> Jimmy Hutcheson: I think what's different online is that it's short form storytelling. We're telling stories that are meant for a 3 to 5 minute time span, and we're telling stories that are meant for an audience that's ADD.

>> Vince Thompson: So you're producing these fun amazing shows, original ideas you guys have worked on, you've got your own site to put them on. How else do you get distribution?

>> Jimmy Hutcheson: Well there's several different ways to do distribution. Right now we're on mobile, we're on TIVO, and then we're on several other video sights that are out on the web, and we have business relationships with those sights - they compensate us for the content. We're working on video on demand; we've got one series on VOD.

>> Vince Thompson: So it's one thing to shoot some videos, put them up on your own website, it's quite a different thing to have a business and make it roll. Can you talk about how it got started and what you did to raise the funds and invest in this?

>> Jimmy Hutcheson: With Ego, we went out and came up with a business plan and actually raised capital and built our studio and our network out, and have people in place to manage the content, marketing, etc.

>> Vince Thompson: What was the hardest part about getting the business launched?

>> Jimmy Hutcheson: Taking something that literally a year ago existed on paper, and making it a reality. Raising the money is hard as hell because you're trying to sell someone a piece of paper. You're balancing the fund raising with scaling and okay we've got this much revenue now, so this is our evaluation and then DC's want to come in and pound your head in.

>> Vince Thompson: Tell me about venture capitalists, what your experience has been in the venture world?

>> Jimmy Hutcheson: It's a good place to go if it's smart money, and they know your space. Regardless of You Tube exploding on the scene two, two and a half, three years ago - it's still a very new space and there is a very limited amount of expertise in this space that really knows this space, and knows some of the marketing and some of the tactical elements that go into making this space successful. It's great.

>> Vince Thompson: Jimmy Hutcheson, founder of Ego TV, thank you so much for being with us today. As always if you have questions, comments, or ideas for guests please feel free to email us. You can do so - info at dog and pony dot com. I'm Vince Thompson, thanks for watching!