Working in a fast-paced startup can be a heads-down endeavour.

At Zype, we know that helping customers solve problems and perform better is the best recipe for success. And, like many fast-growing companies, much of that focus centers on new technology.

However, we know that helping customers often extends beyond just our platform. Many times we find ourselves guiding our clients as well — helping them navigate continuous change and aligning the organization for success.

Recently, we stepped back and looked at common challenges facing not only our customers, but also the industry at large. We asked ourselves: how can we help improve the way video and business teams work together? Through our experience and customer engagement, we saw that many legacy models just don’t cut it anymore. In the new era of premium video as a mission-critical, strategic initiative, engaging with customers — the right customers — when and where they want content is everything.

As part of this process, we also looked at other industries that have transformed themselves. Many have followed and adopted Lean-inspired processes to streamline work and ensure each stage of the product/service life cycle is connected. Business goals and priorities were clearly defined and shared to drive every aspect of a products creation and delivery. Movements like Lean Manufacturing, and in the software space, Agile and DevOps, create greater efficiency in development and production, and enabled incredible delivery speeds.

We believe these approaches also can benefit the streaming video industry, by connecting video business and operations.

Based on our observations and experience, our team at Zype created a new process framework that is freely available and open to the industry — VidOps.

VidOps is a set of guiding principles for video-centric organizations. VidOps is not a Zype product or service, but an open and freely available framework to connect teams, tools and processes to help cross-functional teams deliver more value to customers at a faster speed. The framework aims to unify video developers, technical assets, business stakeholders and content operations work into a single workflow.

VidOps is all about breaking down silos between creative teams, production, engineering, marketing, finance, sales, and creating an interconnected workflow. This means better communication, collaboration, automation and working together toward a shared goal and vision set by the business as a whole.

Though introducing a new set of principles and applying new methods can absolutely be difficult, our industry has the benefit of being relatively young, and agile. That gives all of us in the video industry an advantage. We understand that change is vital to our survival, and VidOps aims to address the latest trends to help us perform better and deliver better value to customers..

At Zype, we believe that as viewer trends continue to move toward OTT and alternative video consumption approaches expand in popularity and scope, the potential for complexities and siloed teams will continue to grow. The VidOps framework focuses on helping teams work better together and streamlining workflows, to ensure video teams meet the strategic objectives they have before them.

Want to learn more? We’ve written a white paper diving deeper into what VidOps is, why we need it and  practical steps you can follow to connect teams and workflows.

Also, VidOps is meant to be an open and collaborative effort, so please reach out to me with your feedback, as we welcome your input to help move VidOps forward.

Introducing VidOps: An Industry Framework for Connecting Video Business and Operations

We have more good news to share this week. Today, Zype announced its inclusion in the 37th annual Inc. 5000, the most prestigious ranking of the nation fastest-growing private companies.

Our team works hard with customers to build amazing streaming video services, relying on our core values of courage, hard work, awesomeness, resourcefulness and thoughtfulness to guide our decisions. It’s great to receive this recognition as it illustrates how building great technology, putting customers first and empowering great people leads to an exciting, growing company.

The Inc. 5000 represents a unique look at the most successful companies within the American economy’s most dynamic segment — its independent small and mid-sized businesses. Zype has grown quickly in the video distribution and content management market space thanks to our strong platform and award-winning customer service.

The 2018 Inc. 5000 is ranked according to percentage revenue growth when comparing

2014 to 2017. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2014. They had to be U.S.-based, privately held, for profit, and Independent — not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies — as of December 31, 2017.

Complete results of the Inc. 5000, including company profiles and an interactive database that can be sorted by industry, region, and other criteria, can be found at www.inc.com/inc5000.

Zype has more than found its footing as a young company, and we are committed to build on our success by being the video distribution and content management platform of choice. To all of our customers, partners and employees — thank you for helping us receive this fantastic industry validation!

We’re on a Roll!  Zype’s Included in the Inc. 5000

At Zype we operate with the mentality that customers are our most important asset and at the core of all our decisions. So,  it doesn’t hurt when this way of thinking pays off. We are so excited to announce that Zype has received a Bronze Stevie Award by the International Business Awards in the Customer Service Department of the Year category.

The Stevie Awards are the world's premier business awards. All individuals and organizations worldwide – public and private, for-profit and nonprofit, large and small - are eligible to submit nominations.

This year the award process was a little different because the judges raised the minimum average score required to qualify as a Stevie winner. We are honored to be placed with so many impressive and innovative companies in the industry.

The 2018 competition attracted more than 3,900 nominations from organizations of all types in 74 nations.

Teams get excited when they see our customer-centric approach and know that their feedback is always taken into consideration. The Zype platform is a collaborative effort with our customers and we have them to thank for some of our best innovations. Taking this approach has set our business apart and helped us earn a reputation for great customer service.

Thank you to all of our customers and partners for helping us receive this fantastic industry recognition, and thank you to the American Business Awards for validating our efforts !

Three Cheers for Zype’s Award Winning Customer Service!

New Partnership Allows Video Publishers to Distribute Content and Maximize Advertising Revenue Across Smart TVs

NEW YORK, New York (March 30, 2017) – Zype, a cloud-based video distribution service for OTT, and Opera TV, market leader in enabling the TV industry’s transition to OTT, today announced the launch of their fully-integrated, end-to-end distribution and monetization solution for video content owners to manage and maximize advertising revenue through the Opera TV Store. World Poker Tour and Shout! Factory are among the more than 20 customers included in the launch.

The integrated OTT offering allows video content owners to easily curate content in the Zype Platform, generate a Smart TV app using an Opera TV Snap formatted content feed, and publish an app on Smart TV manufacturer devices from Sony, TiVo, Hisense, Samsung (Blu-ray players), Skyworth, VESTEL, Oncorp, Changhong, Amino, Swisscom, Virgin Media and more. With Opera TV’s video distribution solution, Zype customers publishing to Opera TV can then monetize their content and get paid via this new revenue stream without having to worry about direct ad sales, ad operations, or further ad technology integrations.

“We are excited to support partners like Opera TV who understand the OTT space and are expanding their engaged and super-active customer base with innovative products like Snap,” said Ed Laczynski, Founder and CEO of Zype. “This collaboration gives our existing customers access to Opera TV’s leading suite of Smart TV products, and increases their ability to monetize and grow. We believe the Smart TV universe represents the future of streaming video, and are psyched to turn this on.”

“Combining both our leading technologies will enable us to accelerate availability of highly desired OTT video content on the biggest screen in the home to millions of consumers globally”, says Daniel Nordberg, VP Content at Opera TV. “Opera TV Snap, an industry-first, cloud based turnkey solution was designed to provide content owners with the opportunity to drive seamless distribution of on-demand and live OTT content on tens of millions of Smart TV devices powered by Opera TV software.”

“We chose Zype for their robust platform that provides us with a simple and efficient process for uploading and distributing to OTT platforms,” said Johnny McMahon, VP, WPT Studios & Executive in Charge of Production for World Poker Tour. “With the Zype and Opera TV integration, WPT content is now readily available on Smart TVs, expanding our global reach and allowing a greater audience to experience all the World Poker Tour has to offer.”

Zype currently enables over 100 content partners to distribute their owned and operated content, while Opera TV helps 1000 video publishers to reach audiences across millions of Smart TV devices.

Zype is the cloud video distribution service for OTT that makes it easy for content owners to connect directly with their audiences on every screen. With Zype, enterprise content owners and brands can own and accelerate all aspects of their video distribution pipeline. Zype provides push button app publishing, monetization, streaming, audience management, and analytics that is integrated into hundreds of OTT apps and engaged by millions of viewers every month. Launched in 2014 and headquartered in New York with offices in Los Angeles, Zype is the 2015 SXSW Accelerator winner in the entertainment and content technology category. For more information, visit http://www.zype.com.

Opera TV is the market leader in enabling the TV industry’s transition to OTT. The Opera TV portfolio powers rich web experiences on tens of millions of devices each year, including Smart TVs, set-top boxes, Blu-ray Disc players, Game Consoles and chipsets for more than 60 customers. The Opera TV ecosystem spans the Opera TV Store app platform with over a thousand entertaining apps tailor-made for TV, the Opera Devices SDK (software development kit) for creating and rendering HTML5-based user interfaces including optional modules to enable HbbTV, the Opera Media Streaming Module, to manage the rapidly changing global OTT streaming requirements, and the Opera TV browser for browsing the full web on TV. Opera TV offers solutions for OEMs, pay-TV operators, broadcasters and content publishers. Visit www.opera.com/tv to learn more.

Zype and Opera TV Launch Integrated OTT Offering

Today, social media seems like it’s everything. With midroll ads on Facebook and multiple ways to distribute your content via social media, it may seem tempting to put all of your effort and content on these platforms. However, prioritizing social may not be the smartest video business decision because owned and operated sites actually deliver a much higher value than social media platforms. In fact, Richie Hyden, from Publishers Daily gives a pretty clear argument why, though social media is definitely a helpful tool, it shouldn’t be your end all be all.

“The argument is pretty straightforward: You need to make sure you’re positioning your content and providing the user experience to succeed in places where you have the highest revenue potential, including O&O. Typically, O&O sites have better targeted audiences and advertisers are willing to pay a premium to access them, at around $20-$30 CPM (and much higher for super premium such as the Wall Street Journal). Social has scale, certainly, but not the targeted audience of a premium publication, and publishers can typically make less than $1 CPM.”

Though content creators can capitalize on video advertising on social media, O&O websites still offer unparalleled revenue opportunities and overall premium video experience. To see what we mean by owned and operated websites, check out Zype customers like Night Flight, The Film Detective, and Havoc TV. Though they’re all incredibly active on social media platforms, they still rely on their O&O websites to distribute and monetize their content. O&O websites also allow for more personalization. For example, Zype’s ad timings feature allows you to place ads anywhere in your video, but also monetize through SVOD and TVOD.

“If we use the sales analogy of the buyer’s journey, then social would be the “awareness” stage, a click through to an O&O website is the “consideration” stage, and watching and engaging video on that O&O is the “decision” stage. When you get a viewer to watch content on your O&O, it’s a sale, and all the incremental follow-on views and repeat visits as a result of personalization are the upsell or cross-sell.  As the old marketing aphorism goes, it’s more profitable to sell more to fewer customers than acquiring more, but selling only once.”

This isn’t to say that social media platforms should be completely written off. In fact, these platforms are great for visibility, and should be used as a lead gen tool, and prospect potential clients.  It’s a tool that can be used for promotion and drive traffic to your site. However, they are definitely not a substitute for O&O websites.

Owned & Operated Sites: More Relevant Than Ever

Selected from 4,000 nominated companies, Zype CEO Ed Laczynski will highlight the company’s significant early growth, market opportunity, and plans for the future

Zype, the cloud video distribution service for OTT, today announced that its CEO Ed Laczynski has been selected to present at the annual Montgomery Summit, the leading business and technology conference that will take place in Santa Monica, Calif. on March 8 and 9. Zype will exhibit as part of the First Look track, with Laczynski presenting on Zype’s business strategy, proprietary technology, and market opportunity to an invited audience of 1,000 entrepreneurs, corporate executives and venture capitalists. The presentation will take place Thursday, March 9th at 9:30 a.m. PST.

This opportunity comes on the heels of a strong 2016 that saw the close of a $3.6M seed round and the launch of Zype Live, a high quality, scalable, and user friendly live streaming service. Since its launch in 2014, Zype's video distribution platform has attracted brand name clients such as ShoutFactoryTV, StarTalk Radio, What's Trending, Texan Live, Bob Ross, and World Poker Tour who use Zype to manage their complete video business -- including VOD and live streaming, monetization, distribution, and analytics -- from one centralized dashboard.

"Zype is right in the middle of a major shift in the way video is being distributed to consumers" said Ed Laczynski, Founder and CEO of Zype. "This market opportunity presented by this unbundled new world has driven significant growth for the company over the past two years, by focusing on providing the easiest to use software for channel builders to engage directly with their audiences across web, mobile and connected TV streaming devices."

A global committee of senior investors from top venture capital and growth funds, prior Summit attendees, researchers, entrepreneurs and Summit partners and staff selected 140 companies to present from over 4,000 nominations. Nominations were evaluated by each company’s sector, stage, growth and engagement metrics, as well as criteria including management, vision, and more.

“The caliber of companies nominated for this year’s Summit was higher than ever and the selected presenters will provide excellent insight and expertise into their respective and rapidly evolving fields – from enterprise data to financial technologies to connected devices,” said Jamie Montgomery, founder of The Montgomery Summit. “Our goal is to connect technology’s best entrepreneurs with incredible investors, partners and advisers and to facilitate meetings that will lead to success for all parties.”

Zype is the cloud video distribution service for OTT that makes it easy for digital broadcasters and publishers to launch and scale live and on-demand video business. The Zype video platform provides publishing, monetization, streaming, audience management, and analytics software that is integrated into hundreds of web, mobile, and TV apps and engaged by millions of viewers every month. Zype launched in 2014 and is headquartered in New York with offices in Los Angeles.

The Montgomery Summit gathers an invited group of entrepreneurs, senior investors and leading executives to discover the most important innovations in business and technology. The event features two days of presentations, keynotes, panels and salons in Santa Monica, Calif. Previously known as The Montgomery Technology Conference, the Summit has for more than a decade provided unparalleled opportunities to meet a diverse blend of technological visionaries and innovators from all over the world. For more information, visit www.montgomerysummit.com.

Zype to Present at The Montgomery Summit

Free Ad Supported Streaming: Tap Into the Massive Audience Behind the Free TV Movement

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Introducing VidOps: An Industry Framework for Connecting Video Business and Operations

We’re on a Roll! Zype’s Included in the Inc. 5000

Three Cheers for Zype’s Award Winning Customer Service!

Zype and Opera TV Launch Integrated OTT Offering

Owned & Operated Sites: More Relevant Than Ever

Zype to Present at The Montgomery Summit

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