Date: Apr 03, 2013 Source: bizjournals (
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What's in a thumbnail?
Turns out quite a lot when it's attached to a web video.
In fact, depending on the thumbnail it can impact how many clicks an online video receives.
Researchers-turned-entrepreneurs at Carnegie Mellon University are taking this knowledge, based on their scientific work, and creating a company called Neon Labs.
In March the firm secured $625,000 in seed funding from a trio of Silicon Valley-based venture capital firms and angel investor/entrepreneur Steve Blank.
The round was led by True Ventures. The other two VCs involved were Mohr Davidow Ventures and XSeed Capital.
Neon is creating a product that will automatically select the best thumbnail for a video. So far a pilot of the technology has shown it can select a more effective thumbnail (meaning it will make you click on that video) than thumbnails picked by web designer, and is even more effective against the randomly generated thumbnails from current video platforms, according to the company.
The company first hit our radar last year at an Innovation Happens event and was again seen at last fall's AlphaLab Demo Day as part of the university showcase of early stage companies. With technology aimed at online media, I'm sure we'll here more about them in the future.
The firm has two locations, both out CMU, one in Moffett Field at the CMU Silicon Valley campus where CEO and co-Founder Sophie Lebrecht currently works, and the other at the school's main campus in Oakland where co-founder Michael Tarr works. Tarr, a professor in the psychology department, is also co-director of the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition and is handling much of the scientific work. Lebrecht is a postdoctoral fellow in the center.
The seed money will be used for continued development of the product.
Neon started as a project in the National Science Foundation's Innovation Corps and that is also where the team met three of its investors. True Ventures Founder John Burke, MDV general partner Jon Feiber and Blank were all teachers in the federal program that is meant to help scientists learn how to commercialize some of their research funded by NSF.
"It's a rare opportunity to have investors who have been partners and champions of the company before there was even a product — when it was just an idea," said Lebrecht in a written statement. "And now, with the addition of new investors XSeed, we have the added benefit of investors who have extensive experience growing companies founded on science. I am confident that with this team and our academic partners from Brown and CMU, Neon will be able to create products that transform how online images are selected."
The technology behind Neon is based on work in neuroscience research through the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, which is a joint program between CMU and the University of Pittsburgh. This technology is co-owned by CMU and Brown University and licensed through CMU, according to a statement from Neon.
