When one door closes, another door opens.
In early November, Aereo decided to shutter its Boston office and lay off 43 employees after a Supreme Court legal blow in which the company lost to broadcasters. But the TV-on-the-Web startup, which was cut off from its revenue stream after its service was taken off the air, could not be saved. Mere weeks later, Aereo filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, which entails selling off any assets possible to pay off debts.
Founder Chet Kanojia, widely regarded as an unusually audacious business leader, did not waste any time following the death of the disruptive startup. In fact, though he’s still working at the company part-time until all of the assets are sold off, he’s already getting ready to launch a new endeavor with a few former Aereo employees: Project Decibel.
The website reveals very little about the venture, stating simply that its “under development.” Two locations for the company are listed: 745 Atlantic Ave in Boston, and 79 Madison Ave in New York City. The company's LinkedIn profile reveals that it has a total of 11-50 staff members, and a search on the networking site shows six Aereo vets are either employees or consultants. Former Aereo engineer Jen Webb revealed that she now works for the firm by updating her Twitter profile. Aereo CTO Joe Lipowski is also on board.
While details are still scant, sources close to Project Decibel have described it as an incubator for Kanojia and former Aereo engineers to develop new technologies, according to Re/code. Will the ideas they work on be related to Web TV in any way? Considering the legal challenges Aereo faced, likely not. In the meantime, though, interested parties can sign up on the Project Decibel website for email updates.
