Versaly Entertainment

In 2 months, Versaly will be 8 years old.  Wow!  What a dynamic roller-coaster ride we have been on.  We started before the first color wallpapers were available on the SonyEricsson T68; and we started before the first TruTone ringtones on Sprint’s CMX-based phones we sold.  Read a past blog on our history for more info.

I keep daily notes of everything; I have a contiguous set of notebooks dating back to the mid-1990’s.  I want to use this week’s blog to look back at years past.

2008 – Today we are highly regarded as a top mobile wallpaper provider and a top mobile video publisher and syndicator.  We are a top wallpaper supplier to Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Jamster, ZED USA and Thumbplay .  We are launching new brands, video programs and personalization collections, including the Underground Sound, an indie alternative rock brand that will include streaming video programming, video clips and ringtones.  We also developed our Social Networking and Viral Marketing strategy and are executing on it.  Check out: www.myspace.com/ClubBrazilGirls, www.myspace.com/USound, www.myspace.com/Hollywoodi and www.myspace.com/SaborMovil.

2007 – Beginning of the year, we launched 3 video channels on 2 different networks.  We launched our own Fast Lane streaming video channel on Sprint.  We sold and successfully ran 5 in-stream mobile video ad campaigns within Fast Lane during the year.  We also launched channels for 2 partners - eBaum’s World on Sprint and Revver on Verizon Vcast.  Both required post-production and programming.  For eBaums, we hosted and streamed the video to Sprint handsets.  For Revver, we upload to Vcast’s server and provide technical support, which we are still doing today.  At the end of this year, we began building out our vast mobile syndication network.

2006 – With the success of Hollywood Insider on Sprint, we realized how important brands are in mobile, whether popular movie studio brands or self-created brands; so we started creating our own to target the core segments in the mobile content market.  These included Fast Lane, Club Brazil, Dream Destinations, Sabor Movil and others.  We signed a large number of content providers to build out our brands for our personalization business and video business.  We went slightly overboard in signing, and acquired too much.  Some weren’t happy but many are still partners today.

2005 – In March, we launched our first streaming mobile video channel, Hollywood Insider on Sprint.  That channel is still “on air” today!  We shutdown our D2C website and became a B2B provider for personalization.  At the end of this year, we created a new way to sell our content.  It was an industry-leading web-based format to make previewing, ordering, tracking, and delivering our products extremely easy for our customers.  Our online catalogs are still being used today, and still regarded as one of the best formats by our distribution partners!

2004 – Throughout this year, we signed up numerous branded and unbranded content providers; and signed additional distribution channels.  We launched the Meet the Parents and Meet the Fockers mobile campaign with multiple mobile products with NBC-Universal.  We solidified our “Mobile Brand Management” program, which was marketed to Hollywood studios and brands.  We still use it as an internal methodology today.  Just an overall busy year building the business and developing new products.

2003 – We got good traction with both our D2C and B2B personalization business and our business grew.  We released a Star Trek and Fear Factor BREW application for ringtones and wallpapers on Verizon; but within 12 months, we stopped due to the explosion of handsets which Verizon released during the period.  We moved to a larger office where we still are today and still producing the best mobile content in the industry!

2002 – We created our own D2C web site to sell mobile personalization products.  We opened distribution through Sprint, AT&T and Telus Mobility.  Our B2B distribution expanded into Europe and Japan.  We secured the Star Trek license from Viacom Consumer Products (Paramount Pictures), their first ever mobile license.  In addition, we secured the Fear Factor license from NBC-TV and Endemol USA, their first ever mobile license.

2001 – After a year of developing a multi-game platform, we realized early on how much more influx of capital was needed to successfully execute our business plan.  In 2001, investment in early-stage companies was not freely flowing.  So, at the end of the year, we started our transformation to a mobile media and entertainment company, which is still our charter today!

2000 – Matthew Feldman and Mike Davis met for the first time and started discussing and researching what is now Versaly Entertainment.