Start-Up Finds Benefit In Sifting Its VC Firm's Connections

By Ty McMahan

Beyond the money they provide, one of the benefits of venture investors is the network of connections they can offer an entrepreneur.

In an example of those connections leading to a fruitful deal, two General Catalyst Partners portfolio companies recently found a way to work together. ShortTail Media Inc. has developed a new video ad platform that leverages Visible Measures Inc.'s patented video measurement technologies.

ShortTail's team actually discovered Visible Measures when its recent funding was in the news. General Catalyst helped connect the two companies and they found a way to work together. Payne then started looking within the General Catalyst portfolio to see if other relationships could be formed.

"There are other cases we're talking to other portfolio companies on how we can work together," ShortTail Chief Executive David Payne said. "That's going to be a common theme."

ShortTail received an undisclosed Series A round from General Catalyst last May. Visible Measures recently raised a $10 million Series C and has raised more than $29 million from General Catalyst, Mohr Davidow Ventures and Northgate Capital.

ShortTail Media has teamed up with Schematic, a WPP Digital company, and Visible Measures to develop an ad unit that launches a video when a user clicks on a site to read a story or view pictures. Known as the Digital 30 - or D30 - ShortTail’s platform provides a way for advertisers to distribute their existing 15- or 30-second spots across a network of Web sites. The D30 platform serves video ads as users navigate to sites from search or headline links, creating ad inventory that does not compete or interfere with existing pre-roll video or display ads on partner Web sites.

By leveraging Visible Measures' analytics, the D30 platform will show advertisers how long users actually engaged with their advertising. The D30 will launch its beta program this summer with select publishers and advertisers.

Based in New York with an office in Atlanta, ShortTail works with more than 50 online publishers whose offline media properties include broadcast TV, cable TV, newspaper and magazines. The company was founded last year by Payne, the former general manager of CNN.com, and Jason Krebs, former vice president of Conde Nast Media Group-Interactive.