The player: Mark Portu, CEO of the FeedRoom
The play: The FeedRoom is a white-label video solutions provider targeting enterprises and media companies that want to deliver video online. The FeedRoom counts about 85 large corporate customers on its roster.
The pitch: The FeedRoom is similar to Brightcove and other online TV platform providers, but differentiates itself with key features, Mr. Portu said. “We think we are tighter and lighter, but we also have other services. We differentiate with the ability to do live and we have a business unit for the live streaming business,” Mr. Portu said. The FeedRoom can integrate its player technology into its clients’ enterprise software and back-end infrastructure. He also said FeedRoom offers a disabled-accessible player that works with assisted technology devices.
In the mix: FeedRoom customers include Hewlett-Packard, Barnes & Noble, USA Today, the New York Times and U.S. News & World Report. FeedRoom handles live and on-demand Web video for many of those companies.
The backstory: The FeedRoom was founded in 1999 by Jon Klein, who left in 2004 and is now the president of CNN. The FeedRoom was originally conceived as a media company that aggregated video clips. Now it has become a technology player. Mr. Portu joined 10 months ago and is charged with building out the company’s tools and infrastructure.
The money guys: The FeedRoom is a venture-backed company that has raised $61 million in total funding, including a recently completed round for $12 million led by NewSpring Capital; those funds will be allocated to increasing headcount in development, sales and marketing. The company makes money via license fees for its software and expects to be profitable by 2010.
The pros: FeedRoom has powered 2 billion streams since the business launched and expects to deliver 500 million video streams on the Web this year.
The cons: The video provisioning business is hypercompetitive, with firms such as Brightcove, Maven, thePlatform, PermissionTV and others jockeying for business.
Background: Mr. Portu was born in Queens, N.Y., and raised in Queens and on Long Island. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin and a master’s degree from New York University. Before joining FeedRoom, he was CEO of an enterprise content-management software company and also co-founded an electronic-document management firm. He now lives in Portsmouth, N.H., and commutes to New York, where FeedRoom is based. He is married with three children.
Who knew? “I have a beautiful sailboat in my barn. It will not be wet this year or next,” he said.