Announcing EQAL

[Mathieas]

Well, how about that, the C's gave Anchor Cove credit for uncovering there new venture.

Link to the original post on the Forum.

Hmmm... I think Anchor Cove was on to something... introducing EQAL:

http://www.eqal.com/

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/16/lo ... form-eqal/

We couldn't have done it without ALL OF YOU! We can't wait to roll up our sleeves and get started producing even more amazing shows...

Miles/Greg

[HyeMew]

Wow I am surprised we got a mention, cause you know that like never happens.
It's amazing what a montage set to exciting music can do for your series.
Lol they show the infamous car accident from the season 1 finale, which almost looks not-embarrassing in a short dose with exciting music.
Followed by Girl Tied Up... wow didn't see that coming as a way to draw viewers in to EQAL.

[milowent]

hmm, lots to read. i guess i'll comment more later. i just checked eqal.com yesterday and it wasn't up yet.

from eqal.com:[/i]

It started with a lonely girl and a simple idea: tell a story incorporating the best elements of traditional narrative and online interactivity. Today that idea has transformed into EQAL (pronounced “Equal”), the social entertainment company dedicated to redefining the way we interact with content and with each other. Merging technology with creative development and production expertise, we are leaders in the creation and distribution of truly interactive shows. Formerly known as LG15 Studios/Telegraph Ave. Productions, we currently produce the two most successful online interactive dramas: lonelygirl15 and KateModern. Through partnerships with independent producers, traditional media companies, and multinational brands, we are launching new interactive shows and building online communities that engage users like never before.

We believe that the community is just as important as the content we create. With this as our blueprint, we construct interactive shows that transform passive viewers into active participants. Our shows entertain and enlighten, driving discussion and encouraging viewers and participants to immerse themselves in a shared entertainment experience. Interactivity lies at the heart of all our shows through the seamless integration of online discussion and live events with community generated content and professionally produced material.

As a social entertainment company, we are committed technologists with an eye towards leveraging the power of the internet to deliver interactive content. PHP, XML, and Javascript aren’t just buzzwords we throw around to impress investors; we deeply understand their utility and are building flexible and scalable web applications that encourage deep interaction between participants and the show.

It’s an exciting time for everyone who loves great entertainment.

[this last line reminds me of: "This is an incredible time for the creator inside all of us."]

[milowent]

http://www.eqal.com/team/

"It's impossible to build a company without an incredible team. We are very fortunate to have a group of talented and experienced individuals who have dedicated themselves to creating groundbreaking entertainment."

MILES BECKETT
Co-Founder and CEO
Co-Creator and Executive Producer, lonelygirl15 and KateModern

Miles Beckett is the Co-Founder and CEO of the social entertainment company, EQAL, and is the Co-Creator and Executive Producer of the online video series’ lonelygirl15 and KateModern. After graduating from medical school and practicing to become a plastic surgeon, Miles came up with the idea of posting a serialized drama on the internet and along with Mesh Flinders and Greg Goodfried, created lonelygirl15 in the summer of 2006. Miles and Greg followed this success by launching KateModern in the summer of 2007 and forming EQAL to develop and create new interactive shows. lonelygirl15 and KateModern became pop culture phenomenons, and are the most popular online interactive shows, collectively receiving over 150 million views to date.

Miles holds a B.S. in Neuroscience from the University of California at Berkeley and an M.D. from the University of California at San Diego. He completed an internship year in the Integrated Plastic Surgery residency program at Loma Linda University Medical Center and one year of tissue engineering research at the National Institutes of Health as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Scholar. He was the founder and Editor-In-Chief of “The Pulse,” a UCSD Medical School newsletter and “The Inhuman Condition,” a UCSD Medical School underground comedy newsletter as well as the Design Editor and staff writer for “The Heuristic Squelch,” the UC Berkeley humor magazine. Prior to forming EQAL, Miles was the Founder and CEO of SHOUTBOY, a comedy video podcast website and the Writer/Director of the political spoof, “West Wingers.”

As an expert on the convergence of entertainment and technology and online video, Miles has been a speaker on panels throughout Europe, Australia and across the US and Canada and was a co-host with Greg Goodfried of Mixed Media, a live streaming web show on NowLive.

GREG GOODFRIED
Co-Founder, President and COO
Co-Creator and Executive Producer, lonelygirl15 and KateModern

Greg Goodfried is the Co-Founder, President and COO of the social entertainment company, EQAL, and is the Co-Creator and Executive Producer of the online video series’ lonelygirl15 and KateModern. While practicing law as a first-year associate [first time i've seen this acknowledgment that he was a baby lawyer, not that they hid it. i think it plays well to the entrepreneurial pitch they are making], Greg, along with Miles Beckett and Mesh Flinders, created lonelygirl15 in the summer of 2006. Greg and Miles followed this success by launching KateModern in the summer of 2007 and forming EQAL to develop and create new interactive shows. lonelygirl15 and KateModern became pop culture phenomenons, and are the most popular online interactive shows, collectively receiving over 150 million views to date.

Trained as an entertainment attorney, Greg has a background in new media and copyright law. He holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California at Berkeley where he was a member of the Men's Varsity Golf Team. He received a J.D. from the University of California at Los Angeles and went on to practice law at Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp, LLP. Greg is married to Amanda Goodfried, Series Producer on lonelygirl15 and Head of Production for EQAL’s Los Angeles office.

As an expert on the convergence of entertainment and technology and online video, Greg has been a speaker on panels throughout Europe and across the US and Canada and was a co-host with Miles Beckett of Mixed Media, a live streaming web show on NowLive.

JAMES R. STERLING
Senior Vice President, Business Affairs and Operations

James R. Sterling joined EQAL in 2008 as its Senior Vice President, Business Affairs and Operations. Prior to joining the company, James spent over three years at Mark Burnett Productions [LOL.] in Business and Legal Affairs, where he oversaw all business and legal related matters for The Apprentice (NBC), Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (FOX), The Contender (ESPN), On The Lot (FOX), Amnesia (NBC), RockStar (CBS), Gold Rush (AOL), Flushed Away: Underground Adventure (AOL), and Wedding Day (pilot) (TNT). James negotiated and closed over thirty brand integration deals for “The Apprentice,” working with companies such as Toyota, Kodak, Dial, Norwegian Cruise Lines, and XM Radio. James regularly negotiated above the line and talent agreements, domestic distribution agreements, indemnity agreements, and casting documents. In addition, James managed day-to-day production and clearance matters, worked with and guided outside counsel on all intellectual property, employment, and litigation matters, and regularly provided counsel on corporate related matters.

Prior to joining Mark Burnett Productions, James spent five years as a litigator at Lavely and Singer, P.C. where he handled all aspects of entertainment and intellectual property law. Practice areas included contracts, talent agency regulation, rights of privacy and publicity, free speech, defamation and employment law.

James received a B.A. in History and Public Policy from the University of California, Los Angeles and a J.D. from the University of Southern California.

AMANDA GOODFRIED
Head of Production, EQAL Los Angeles [2nd reference to the "LA" office. haven't seen where the other offices are yet.]
Series Producer, lonelygirl15
Co-Executive Producer, KateModern

Amanda Goodfried is the Head of Production for EQAL’s Los Angeles office and is the Series Producer of lonelygirl15 and Co-Executive Producer of KateModern. In this capacity, she oversees all aspects of physical production for EQAL’s current and future Los Angeles based productions. Amanda is responsible for weekly pre-production, script supervision, line production, interactivity and other elements necessary to consistently deliver high quality interactive shows.

Amanda Goodfried received a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California at Berkeley and a J.D. from the University of Miami. Prior to working on lonelygirl15, Amanda, an attorney, worked in the business affairs department at the Creative Artists Agency (CAA) in Beverly Hills, a Hollywood talent agency. She also held roles as an agent trainee at Abrams Artists Agency, worked at several production companies, and interned in the LA County District Attorney's Office.

KELLY BRETT
Head of Production, EQAL London [ok, london]
Series Producer, KateModern

Kelly Brett is the Head of Production for EQAL’s London office and is the Series Producer of KateModern. Kelly started her media career in 2000 at Hat Trick Productions working on the highly successful “The Kumar’s at No. 42” for the BBC. After Hat Trick, Kelly moved to Endemol where she spent two years working on daily live entertainment shows such as Big Brother and Fame Academy. Over the next four years, Kelly worked with some of the UK’s finest Independent Television production companies such as Talkback Thames, Baby Cow, UMTV and So TV for all of the major UK broadcasters specializing in multi camera entertainment formats. In 2005, Kelly joined Vera Productions as a Production Manager overseeing projects as diverse as After School Arms Club (C4), The National Lottery (BBC1), and 16 hours of live football World Cup entertainment (ITV Sport).

CASEY KLEBBA
Creative Director

Casey Klebba is a designer.

While studying Visual Communication at the University of Oklahoma he began working for the student website, where he honed his skills in web design and development. After graduating, Casey began his professional career at Disney Online, where he worked on sites such as Disneyworld.com, Disneyland.com, and Disneyparks.com.

Currently, Casey is the Creative Director at EQAL and is responsible for the branding, site design, in-show graphics and marketing collateral of the company. [this is basically his current job description for lg15 studios]

Casey's skills include print and web design, front-end web development, interactive design and development, photography and navigating the Los Angeles mass transit system.

Institutional Investors (description for each is lifted from lg15todayposthere, eqal.com just lists the names).

Spark Capital

"Spark Capital is a venture fund based in Boston, Massachusetts. Our investment focus is on the conflux of the media, entertainment and technology industries. Over the last decade, telecom, wireless, and cable operators have spent enormous amounts of capital building up their broadband infrastructure. The next decade will be spent monetizing this infrastructure. We will exploit this opportunity by investing in companies that we believe will benefit from the rapid transformation of media and content driven by innovative technologies and evolving business models."

Additional Investors

Conrad Riggs: (descr. from LG15 Today)

"Conrad Riggs, a producer with Mark Burnett Productions (Survivor), did make a “small investment” in Lonelygirl15 before the series started striking brand integration deals, and LG15 studios rents office space from Riggs in Santa Monica."

Ron Conway: (descr. from Wikipedia).

"Ron Conway is a Silicon Valley venture capitalist who was an early investor in Google, PayPal, and Ask Jeeves.
He is featured in Gary Rivlin's book The Godfather of Silicon Valley: Ron Conway and the Fall of the Dot-coms, described as 'the man who has placed more bets on Internet start-ups than anyone else in Silicon Valley'."

Marc Andreessen: (descr. from Wikipedia): [whoa]

"Marc Andreessen (born July 9, 1971, in Cedar Falls, Iowa and raised in New Lisbon, Wisconsin, United States) is a multi-millionaire software engineer and Silicon Valley "whiz kid" entrepreneur best known as co-author of Mosaic, the first widely-used web browser, and co-founder of Netscape Communications Corporation. He was the chair of Opsware, a software company he founded originally as Loudcloud, when it was acquired by Hewlett-Packard. He is also a cofounder of Ning, a company which provides a platform for social-networking websites. Andreessen is one of the most successful entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, having started 2 successful companies and working on Ning, his third venture."

Georges Harik: (descr. from Starupsearch.org)

Georges Harik was an early engineer at Google where he co-developed AdSense and AdWords advertising systems. He later led Google's internal startup initiatives, a program called Googlettes, responsible for developing new web applications such as Gmail, Google Video, and Google Groups.

Frank and Annette Zajaczkowski:(descr. from LGPedia):

"Frank is the father of Miles Beckett, one of the Creators. The senior Beckett appeared as a Watcher (bald and sporting a beard in the elevator) in The Human Ransom and again as a thug in They Shot Him!.
When lonelygirl15 first started to get popular, Miles Beckett borrowed money from his parents to help pay Jessica Lee Rose's salary and to keep the project afloat.
Frank Zajaczkowski's name was revealed in the first NowInLA.com podcast from the Creators on March 6th, 2007."

[milowent]

ok hye, not only did they credit us, they actually linked the "all men are created EQAL" thread, and their blogpost title references that thread.

---

http://www.eqal.com/blog/

We all created EQAL
4/16/2008 8:20 PM PST

Hey everyone, welcome to our new website. Congratulations to the folks at Anchor Cove for figuring out that we were up to something before we made the official announcement. As you might imagine, it’s been an exciting (and exhausting) year for us. We had so many opportunities after the hugely surprising success of lonelygirl15, but we realized pretty quickly that it was most important to stay true to the impulse that inspired us to launch lonelygirl15 in the first place: our desire to create new forms of entertainment.

We’ve spent the last year and a half working hard at producing lonelygirl15, launching KateModern, and figuring out a business model that works in this emerging medium. None of it would have been possible without the help of our incredible team and our amazing community of hundreds of thousands of passionate viewers. Of course, you all know the actors on each show, but you may not know James, Amanda, Kelly, Casey, Luke, Kevin, Yusuf, Marcello, and the entire lonelygirl15 and KateModern production teams without whom none of this would be possible. We are incredibly fortunate to be working with such an all star group of individuals.

It’s an exciting time for online entertainment. There are a slew of independent producers, digital studios, and social media companies sprouting up, not to mention the fact that traditional media isn’t exactly ignoring this whole “internets” thing. We’ve always wanted to stay independent and produce interactive shows that we could put our hearts and souls into, and sometime last fall we realized that raising money would give us the ability to remain independent and produce amazing shows on our terms.

After six months of fast food and airplane delays, we found a VC that shared our vision to build a company that would produce truly interactive shows. Many of the exciting innovations we’ve all talked about [this links to a nov 07 phorum thread about site upgrades] will finally come to fruition now that we have the funding to act on our shared vision. Needless to say, we’re very excited to get started.

No investors would have put a cent in this company without the passionate and amazing community that has formed around LG15. A sea change is under way, and you are all at the very beginning. We are so excited to take this ride with you and see where it will lead.

Who’d have thought a video series co-starring a purple monkey puppet would come so far?

Miles/Greg

[milowent]

(too bad ALISSA is not around to shame me for multiple serial posts.)

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/16/lo ... form-eqal/

Lonelygirl15 and KateModern Creators Raise $5 million, Form EQAL
Mark Hendrickson

In June 2006, former medical student Miles Beckett and disgruntled lawyer Greg Goodfried teamed up with filmmaker Ramesh Flinders to launch Lonelygirl15, a fictional video journal series on YouTube that captured audiences and led them to believe that the female protagonist was actually broadcasting her real life.

After the truth came out about the authenticity of the recordings, Lonelgirl15’s creators went on to produce a British sister show called KateModern, which launched on Bebo in July 2007.

Now Beckett and Goodfried have formed EQAL (pronounced “equal”), an interactive media company that will continue producing the Lonelygirl15 and KateModern series among others to come. The new company has raised $5 million in Series A from Spark Capital and individuals such as Conrad Riggs, Ron Conway, Marc Andreesen, and Georges Harik.

Both series will be hosted at LG15.com. Since the company’s name refers to the equality of this new type of media, and the way in which community members interact with the stories it produces, LG15.com features social media like comments, chat, a forum, and a wiki.

EQAL plans to produce different versions of its shows for different countries, all of which will be distributed through LG15.com. These shows will contain occasional nods and references to each other, and their plots may even cross over at times.

CrunchBase Information
EQAL
Website: eqal.com
Location: California
Funding: $5M

[milowent]

other news articles:

Wall Street Journal

'Lonelygirl' Gets Popular With Investors
By REBECCA BUCKMAN

Producers of the Internet-video serial "lonelygirl15" -- once thought to be an amateur project but later revealed to be the product of professionals [albeit a professional doctor, lawyer, and commune inhabitant] -- have raised $5 million from prominent technology investors to expand and introduce new online shows.

The new funding for EQAL, the Los Angeles company behind "lonelygirl" and another popular Internet drama, "KateModern," illustrates Silicon Valley's continuing push to move video onto the Web and find better ways to make money from it. Though the online-video industry got a big boost after Google Inc. bought video site YouTube for $1.6 billion two years ago, many companies are still struggling to come up with viable revenue models.

Todd Dagres, a partner at Spark Capital, the Boston-based firm that led EQAL's round of financing, said the studio understands that "the Web is not TV, and you can't advertise like you do on TV."

Instead, EQAL, formerly known as LG15 Studios and led by Chief Executive Miles Beckett and President Greg Goodfried, plans to weave advertising into the content of their shows, Mr. Dagres said, and also to interact with its community of viewers.

Other investors putting cash into EQAL include Silicon Valley's Ron Conway, who backed Google in its early days; Marc Andreessen, the co-founder of browser pioneer Netscape Communications; Conrad Riggs, a Hollywood producer involved with TV shows such as "Survivor" and "The Apprentice"; and Georges Harik, a former Google executive.

Mr. Goodfried said EQAL is profitable, even though it has survived thus far with limited funding, including some money provided by Mr. Beckett's parents and the "brand integration" deals the men have struck with advertisers who wanted their products mentioned or shown in lonelygirl15 and KateModern.

"Lonelygirl" gained popularity on YouTube and "KateModern," set in London, has a deal to be distributed by Bebo, the social-networking site recently purchased by Time Warner Inc.'s AOL. Current and previous advertisers on the shows have included Procter & Gamble Co. and Toyota Motor Corp.

In the original "lonelygirl" season in 2006, Johnson & Johnson's Neutrogena got a plug when a scientist from the company was woven into the plot.

The show's main first-season character, Bree, was killed off last year.

----

Business Week:

Lonely Girl Duo Gets VC Funds for EQAL
Miles Beckett and Greg Goodfried are creating an online studio that will be equal parts TV studio and social networking site

by Ronald Grover

Miles Beckett and Greg Goodfried, the duo behind the 2006 online video phenom, Lonely Girl, have received $5 million from venture capitalists including Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen, to create an independent online studio.

The pair say they turned down money from major media companies to build an independent studio that will let them do things their own way—create what they are calling a "social entertainment" company that will be equal parts TV studio and social networking site. The company is to be called EQAL, a shortening of the world "equal" to show that folks like them have just as much a chance to find a big audience as the huge media companies with their armies of programming executives. [But wait, there is no "U" in EQAL!]

The two aren't the only online programming hotshots who have found some deep-pocketed venture capitalists and who have designs on going directly to mouse-clicking videophiles. Former MTV Networks chief Herb Scannell has raised money—including from Spark Capital, one of the backers behind Lonely Girl, to create several online channels.

Webby Award Nominations

But Beckett and Goodfried have a couple of true hits already. Their shows Lonely Girl 15 and Kate Modern have been viewed more than 150 million times, the two say, and were both nominated as best drama at the upcoming Webby Awards, the Emmys for online producers. Moreover, Lonely Girl, which at the outset featured what appeared to be a real 15-year old in distress, became a national obsession among online video viewers before it was revealed that Bree, the young woman, was in fact an actress.

Beckett, a onetime surgeon, and former lawyer Goodfried intend to use the two shows—and others they are contemplating—to create their own studio to tap the social networking aspects of their current site lonelygirl15.com. They expect to use some of the $5 million to find new technology [new technology?] that will enable them to offer services such as messaging and "friending" to expand the numbers of people who already go the site, says Beckett. [Inventor 1: "Tonight we shall invent "friending"! Inventor 2: "Hey i just got a friend request on bebo from you." Inventor 1: "Damn, i'm good!"]

The site currently uses a comment board to keep its users involved with the plots. Viewers have occasionally offered up ideas on the comment board that have become plot twists. An upcoming guest appearance by one of the characters in Lonely Girl on Kate Modern was an idea first broached on the comment board. [Crossover plot twist ... officially spilled] That kind of viewer interaction is the beginnings of a larger social network, according to the two creators. The two shows use limited product placement at the moment, says Goodfried, and will look at revenue sources that include on-site advertising and subscriptions.

So far, the two say, they have steered clear of aligning with major media companies. "We've talked with all of them," says Beckett. "We've talked to MySpace ( NWS) and Bebo, everyone, and we'd rather stay independent and pursue our own vision."

The two haven't ruled out making TV shows in conjunction with a large media company, but they would rather maintain the rights to the show—and, of course, the revenue stream. That would make them a new media version of the independent production companies that now produce movies and TV shows, but then license them for limited showings on TV networks or as features in movie theaters. Not surprisingly, they say that they are already fielding tons of pitches from other, not-as-well-financed, video producers who would rather deal with them than a large media company.

----

Washington Post

Lonely No More: Lonelygirl15 Production Company EQAL Gets $5 Million Funding
[can i get collective groan for the title? not again!]

Rafat Ali
paidContent.org
Thursday, April 17, 2008; 2:07 AM

And yet, the funding keeps flowing in: EQAL, the new name of the production company behind the pioneering online video series Lonelygirl15, has received $5 million in funding from various investors to develop more shows beyond its first franchise and KateModern in UK. The round was led by Spark Capital, and includes some Silicon Valley heavyweights including Ron Conway and Marc Andreessen, and Georges Harik, a former Google (NSDQ: GOOG) executive. Also investing, Conrad Riggs, a Hollywood producer involved with TV shows such as "Survivor" and "The Apprentice". All this for a Santa Monica-based company. EQAL was formerly known as LG15 Studios/Telegraph Ave, and is led by CEO Miles Beckett and President Greg Goodfried. A history of the series and the company is here on Wikipedia. [i'm glad the post links freely to wikipedia. i see this whole article appears to come from some other source]

The company says it is profitable through brand integration deals, something it wants to expand on with more shows. It would compete against the likes of many other such video studios, like NextNew Networks, 60Frames, and many others.

On company's blog, the founder explain the rationale: "We've always wanted to stay independent and produce interactive shows that we could put our hearts and souls into, and sometime last fall we realized that raising money would give us the ability to remain independent and produce amazing shows on our terms." Remain independent and venture capital? Truer words have...

Meanwhile, the original Lonelygirl Jessica Rose, the New Zealand actress, has moved on, and will soon return online as the star of "Blood Cell," a new horror-thriller from 60Frames, directed by Eduardo Rodriguez. More on that here.

----

c-net

'Lonelygirl15' creators launch production company, pull in venture funding
Posted by Caroline McCarthy

Remember the Web series Lonelygirl15? Protagonist "Bree" might have gotten killed off, but the team that created her wants to go places.

On Thursday, Lonelygirl15 brains Miles Beckett and Greg Goodfried--who also created a British spin-off called KateModern--announced the launch of their new "social entertainment" production company, Eqal. Previously, their company's name had been a bit more of a mouthful: LG15 Studios/Telegraph Ave. Productions.

Along with its debut, Eqal has announced $5 million in Series A venture funding in a round led by Spark Capital, with contributions from notable investors, including Silicon Valley veteran Ron Conway and serial entrepreneur Marc Andreessen.

Pronounced "equal," Eqal aims to work with both independent content creators and big media companies to produce "shows where the community built around the property is as important as the characters within it."

Indeed, Lonelygirl15 gained a massive cult following on YouTube and MySpace.com, due in part to the fact that many viewers were convinced that 'Bree' was a real 16-year-old video blogger.

Bree was outed as actress Jessica Rose in September 2006, but the show continued; Beckett and Goodfried went on to debut KateModern on social network Bebo.

Encouraging heavy social-networking activity around a Web video series has been a popular, albeit not necessarily successful, experiment. The series Quarterlife built an entire community site, but it hasn't achieved the same kind of cult fame that Lonelygirl15 did.

A new Eqal online-video venture will be announced Monday, according to the company. [Hmmm? I am not sure this is right. it seems that a lg15-km crossover is the next big thing.]

[milowent]

Hollywood Report
has a few extra details

Lonelygirl15 studio rebrands, attracts investors
By Alex Woodson

April 16, 2008
NEW YORK -- The studio behind Internet sensation lonelygirl15 has received funding from a group of investors including veterans of Netscape, Google and Mark Burnett Prods.

LG15/Telegraph Ave. Prods., which is being rebranded as EQAL, will receive a $5 million Series A round of financing led by Spark Capital. Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen, Conrad Riggs of Mark Burnett Prods., Silicon Valley venture investor Ron Conway and former Google director Georges Harik also are investing in this round.

Company CEO Miles Beckett, president and COO Greg Goodfried and Mesh Flinders launched "lonelygirl15" in June 2006, and it quickly became a viral hit on YouTube. In summer 2007, Beckett and Goodfried launched "KateModern" on Bebo, a social network popular in the U.K. that is being acquired by AOL.

Beckett and Goodfried explained that the funding isn't tied to a specific new project; they're looking to "build the corporate infrastructure" and hire programrs, developers and ad sales workers. The studio now has eight full-time employees, with "lonelygirl" and "KateModern" employing production units of 12-14 people apiece.

"Prior to raising the money, we really could've continued producing the shows," Beckett said. "But there's lots of opportunities out there, and we wanted to have that money to hire those extra programrs and sales people so we can grow."

Beckett and Goodfried said they will continue to creative interactive shows but on "a bigger scale."

Beckett said the company was profitable in 2007, making money from advertising, brand integration, creative licensing and distributing the shows through platforms like YouTube.

The two said they started the round in November. They met Riggs, who previously was an angel investor of the company, who in turn introduced them to Conway, who "knows everyone," Beckett said.

---

[robtomorrow]

The promo on the site is very well done. They probably paid a pretty penny to professionals to produce it. Say that ten times real fast.

[suze900]

This is fascinating! Thanks for the great articles, milo. Now, what I really want to know: who is EQAL, here at the Cove, that is? Someone planted that story for us to follow.