Around a dozen D.C. area entrepreneurs will see their stories told in a new video series put together by local entrepreneur Robert Morgan via District-based digital media platform ICX Media. Morgan's Talaria Media company is producing the Pivotal Plays series, which will feature the stories of notable business leaders in D.C., New York and Los Angeles, to start.
Talaria will work with creators on ICX's platform to produce the series, which will start filming this month, and with businesses in the community's to find good subjects for the series. For example, NextGen Venture Partners is one of the groups helping Talaria find subjects in the D.C. area.
Filming by the creators chosen on the ICX platform begins this month, on subjects nominated by others in the business community, including D.C.-based venture capital firm NextGen Venture Partners.
"We've been working closely with [Talaria] on this for months," ICX Media CEO Michael Avon told DC Inno in an interview. "We have some amazing independent creators, who can be more cost effective than high-production shops who make everything look the same. We've also been helping Talaria develop a strategy to push out the series to Facebook and YouTube and other digital channels."
ICX was founded by a group of former Millennial Media executives led by Avon. The platform is designed to find and raise the profile of up and coming filmmakers with a mix of data analytics and machine learning capability that can best connect creators with social media and advertising partners and help them better distribute and earn money from their work. That's exactly what the Pivotal Plays series needs, according to Morgan.
"I've known Michael a long time and ICX has been a great partner," Morgan told DC Inno in an interview. "I can't wait to see how the videos turn out, and I know they'll be getting a much wider audience. Those analytics matter."
Each video will have one of three themes to tell the story of the entrepreneur. It will either be about an inspiring 'lightbulb moment,' a time when the subject overcame some major adversity or a humbling moment that taught a valuable lesson to the entrepreneur. The first videos are expected to go up by the end of February.
"The creators are coming from different points of their careers with different styles and ideas. "What we offer is a really powerful, scalable product. [Talaria] and the content creators can use our tools to make their lives easier and monetize better on our platform," Avon said. I really love the vision from Talaria and Pivotal Plays about highlighting the entrepreneurs out there. And it's even better since I'm a local guy and Robert's a local guy. It's a true case of a real D.C. tech deal."
