The player: Christopher Michel, CEO of Affinity Labs in San Francisco

The play: Affinity Labs is a technology and publishing company that develops social networking sites around specific niches, usually professions. The sites Affinity develops, such as Military.com, a job board for the military that counts 10 million members, often include videos. Affinity now operates 11 niche sites that cater to the likes of teachers, nurses and police officers. “It’s kind of a vertical job board meets a social network,” Mr. Michel said.

The pitch: Affinity Labs is an example of how companies are using the Web to serve video and information that is targeted to niches and communities. The sites Affinity Labs develops are designed to be social hubs and contain articles, videos, pictures and job listings to draw users in. “Our niche is all niche,” Mr. Michel said. “We think of an interesting vertical and we are going to own that category. Over time we will be in hundreds of communities.”

In the mix: Affinity Labs bears some similarities to companies like Ning and KickApps that provide social media tools to Web sites, but Affinity owns and operates the sites it develops. Affinity also uses its own proprietary technology. The key to being successful in social media is to be “hyperfocused on things that move the needle,” Mr. Michel said. “It has to be great consumer value, and I think we have an extraordinary analytical focus to marketing and customer retention.”

Backstory: Mr. Michel started Military.com in 1999 with funding in part from A&E and History Channel, the Mayfield Fund, Primedia and U.S. Venture Partners. He sold the site to Monster Inc. in 2004. Then he launched Affinity Labs in 2006 and sold that to Monster in January.

The money guys: The company is owned by Monster. Affinity Labs makes money by selling ads on the sites and with job postings. Mr. Michel would not disclose a time frame for profitability.

The pros: The opportunity for Affinity Labs lies in serving niches online with a full suite of social media, video and job listings.

The cons: Media on the Web is being increasingly fragmented and competition for niches is fierce.

Background: Mr. Michel was born in Florida and grew up in Paris, Connecticut and Illinois. He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Illinois, then spent seven years in the Navy, including a stint at the Pentagon. He earned an MBA from Harvard. He lives in San Francisco.

Who knew? Mr. Michel is also a photographer and takes thousands of pictures a week, of both people and places.