NeonGrid Profile Page - H 2014
Hollywood has IMDb. Professionals have LinkedIn. And now online video and music creatives have NeonGrid.
The Culver City-based startup launched a crediting platform at VidCon in Anaheim on Thursday to help give everyone from on-camera talent to directors to sound mixers the ability to take credit for work that is posted online. NeonGrid is currently working with YouTube multichannel network partners Machinima and Big Frame to build out its network. Individual YouTubers such as Olga Kay and Lauren Elizabeth also are using the platform.
The 11-person company was founded in 2012 by IMDb veteran John Gibbons, musician Greg Delson and serial entrepreneur Tarn Rodewald. NeonGrid CEO Gibbons tells THR that “credits are the currency of the entertainment industry,” but he was surprised to learn “the grand irony” that online video creators have no place to credit their work and often still rely on paper résumés.
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NeonGrid has created a social crediting system where people can tag their own work and that of their colleagues. The free platform can search and pull videos or audio files posted to a number of sites, including YouTube, Vimeo and iTunes. People can then indicate their work on the project and tag co-workers, who receive a notification to verify the credits.
Since launching in private beta last summer, NeonGrid has grown to more than 30,000 credits in a searchable database. The company will eventually look to monetize the platform and could follow the premium account model popularized at IMDb and LinkedIn, but Gibbons maintains that crediting work would remain free.
