The player: Frank Barbieri, CEO of Transpera

The play: Transpera provides technology to turn Internet sites into mobile video channels. “We partner with online video publishers who want an easy-to-add rich mobile video experience or we partner with mobile operators who want easy ways to package and aggregate online video and we partner with advertisers,” Mr. Barbieri said. Transpera builds the mobile channels, translating existing content into a form that works well on mobile phones.

The pitch: Mr. Barbieri said Transpera doesn’t just port online video sites to mobile phones. “Mobile is a feature of an online video brand. We are going to help all those existing online video brands create easy-to-use mobile features,” he said. “You give us your video and we’ll make you money.”

Backstory: Mr. Barbieri founded Transpera in January and raised about $250,000 in angel funding in April. In June, the company raised an undisclosed amount of venture funding from partners including Intel Capital, IDG Ventures and First Round Capital.

In the mix: The company launched in late July and is curr
ently reaching out to online video sites, advertisers and mobile carriers to strike deals. Transpera could partner, for instance, with a television network and transform the network’s online video properties into a mobile experience, perhaps letting users pick videos to send to their phones or to a friend’s phone, he said. “It’s extending all the interaction they have online to the widest possible mobile audience,” he said.

The money guys: Transpera expects to make money through license fees and via advertising. “You will see us coming out with a growing ad network over time and we will have brands lined up,” Mr. Barbieri said. Clients can opt to contract with Transpera to build mobile channels and to use Transpera’s ad network as well.

The competition: Companies such as MyWaves and BuzzWire are operating similar businesses that help bring existing Web content to cell phones.

The pros: The market for mobile advertising in the United States last year reached $421 million and should grow to $4.8 billion in 2011, according to market research firm eMarketer.

The cons: Mobile video presents vast design challenges because of the variety of phones and networks in the marketplace. “The distribution topology is just so different. Getting something distributed on a mobile phone is more complex,” Mr. Barbieri said.

Background: Mr. Barbieri was born at Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California. He was raised in Framingham, Mass., and earned a degree in political science from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. He recently ran media products at InfoSpace and also ran the Windows Mobile Media Device & Services group at Microsoft. He is 39 and lives in Santa Monica.

Who knew? Before working in digital media, Mr. Barbieri was a war correspondent, covering El Salvador, Burma and Cambodia for Asia Week.