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When discount movie ticket platform Dealflicks left San Francisco for Warner Bros. Media Camp accelerator in LA last year, the team had no idea that they would soon adopt LA as its home city. Although they still have an engineering office up north, their team now bases itself in LA because of its relationships with so many entertainment companies in the area.
“We built a tremendous amount of relationships within Warner Bros. through Media Camp, and this has helped us gain access, introductions and meetings to decision makers at studios, investors, theaters, etc.,” Dealflicks co-founder Sean Wycliffe said.
The 12-week accelerator program, which was initiated by Warner Bros. and Turner Broadcasting System (both Time Warner companies), is heading into its third year offering participating startups $20,000 investments, access to Warner Bros. and Turner mentors and opportunities to connect with other industry giants. This year’s class starts May 28 and ends mid-August with a Demo Day. Applications close March 31 via AngelList.
The accelerator isn’t just interested in entertainment or broadcasting startups, but rather companies that can offer solutions in verticals such as audience measurement, data intelligence, short-form video consumption, mobile gaming and fan empowerment.
The latter vertical is exactly what Chicago-based social commerce platform Kumbuya helped Warner Bros. with. After Kumbuya completed the Media Camp program last year, they secured a deal to manage online fan bases of five films and TV shows in 2013. Warner Bros. does not promise deals to everyone in the program, Kumbuya founder and CEO Joshua Karp said, but the studio is serious about putting innovation to the test.
“They have a legitimate commitment to the idea of innovation and learning about how their industry is changing,” Karp said. “They don’t just pay lip service.”
Wycliffe said that Dealflicks’s growth is a result of the mentors at Media Camp: the company was able to continue iterating its approach, which led them to more potential partnerships with theatres and studios. Today, the company has over 40,000 users and is on their way to partnering with 1,000 theatre locations this year.
“Much of this information isn't available online or to the public… but we were able to get an extremely deep understanding of studios' perspective on pretty much every topic under the sun, including those directly relevant to our business model,” Wycliffe said.
