EQAL
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EQAL is a next-generation media company that combines technology and people to power 24/7/365 digital media properties around consumer brands and celebrities. EQAL’s network of more than 25 celebrity and branded media properties reaches nearly 30 million trend-setting consumers and generates over 3 billion content impressions every month. An EQAL media property is a multiplatform digital magazine that creates a seamless experience for fans across various devices and social networks. Each property has a presence on popular social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube and connects to a central “hub,” a website built on our social publishing platform that includes blogs, forums, and video & photo galleries, fostering a community of passionate fans.

EQAL’s pop culture-obsessed teams of editors, writers, designers and social media experts create multiplatform media properties in partnership with familiar personalities and brands across numerous verticals. Our portfolio includes Nick Cannon, Bethenny Frankel, The Kind Life with Alicia Silverstone, Stan Lee, Tori Spelling, Lauren Conrad, Sugar Ray Leonard, Michelle Phan, KRAFT’s Real Women of Philadelphia, Walk With Walgreens, and YouTube phenoms Elle & Blair Fowler.

Umbrella is our proprietary social publishing platform that powers our network of highly interactive social websites and mobile apps. The core platform is an API that integrates dozens of third-party API’s, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Foursquare, Instagram and more. Because Umbrella websites and applications are connected via API’s to popular social networks like Facebook and Twitter, our media properties are “service and device agnostic,” making it easy for fans to interact with the property on their favorite social network using their preferred device. The Umbrella platform consists of a web-services application and RESTful API that provides a generic interface for dozens of third-party social API’s. Applications built on top of the Umbrella API can seamlessly read-write data across multiple services with fewer API calls and lower overhead. The platform includes a content management system and a mobile publishing application, and provides a framework for future application development including mobile consumer apps, connected-television apps, and more. • Our media properties are #1 in their categories o Alicia Silverstone’s The Kind Life (thekindlife.com) is the #1 vegan lifestyle property, with over 40k registered users o Elle and Blair (elleandblair.com) is the #1 teen fashion guru property with 40k registered users, a social media reach of over 2mm users, and nearly 1mm visits to the site every month o Michelle Phan (michellephan.com) is the #1 make-up and beauty tutorial property with over 80k registered users, a social media reach of over 2.5mm users, and over 1.7mm subscribers on YouTube o Lauren Conrad (laurenconrad.com) is the #1 celebrity fashion & beauty property with 35k registered users, a social media reach of over 2.6mm users, and 1.1mm average monthly visits to the site o Nick Cannon (nickcannon.com) has the #1 reach of any celebrity comedy site with a social media reach of 3mm users generating 1.2 billion content impressions every month o Walk with Walgreens (walgreens.com/walk) is the #1 online walking community with 150,000 registered users and over 3.6 billion steps logged o Real Women of Philadelphia (realwomenofphiladelphia.com) is the #1 CPG cooking community and the winner of the 2011 Gold Effie Award for marketing efficacy Our innovative “sponsored post” ad unit is integrated into the feed of content on the homepage of our celebrity websites and syndicated to social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Because the ads are shareable, like-able, and incorporate discounts and giveaways, they drive high levels of engagement and ROI. Leveraging our branded content team, brand advertisers can directly work with our celebrity partners to create an on-site “celebrity campaign” or a micro-site “branded community.” We’ve worked with the biggest brands on earth, including Kraft, Walgreens, Avon, and more, and we set the bar for social media advertising with our 2011 Effie award-winning Real Women of Philadelphia campaign. Our leadership team includes technology and creative executives from CAA, Disney, E! Entertainment, Firstborn, McKinsey, Trailer Park, MTV, FUSE TV, Idealab, and Amazon.

EQAL was founded by online programming pioneers Miles Beckett and Greg Goodfried who created many of the “firsts” in the development of the online video industry with lonelygirl15, KateModern and Harpers Globe. In April, EQAL will premiere “u look haute”, one of the YouTube original programming channels. .

Milestones
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EQAL added Tom Walker as VP, Interactive Design. (2/1/11)

Posted 9/26/11 at 2:12pm
EQAL added Tom Walker as VP, Interactive Design. (2/1/11)

Posted 9/26/11 at 2:10pm
EQAL added Tom Walker as VP, Interactive Design.

Posted 9/13/11 at 7:50am
EQAL added Matt Seigel as VP, Branded Content.

Posted 9/13/11 at 7:47am
EQAL added Rajeev Chitamoor as VP, Engineering.

Posted 9/13/11 at 7:35am
EQAL added Vivek Malik as CTO.

Posted 9/13/11 at 7:32am
EQAL added Tyler Rubin as CFO.

Posted 9/13/11 at 7:25am
EQAL added Paras Maniar as COO.

Posted 9/13/11 at 7:21am
EQAL added Paras P. Maniar as COO. (6/1/08)

Posted 9/8/11 at 3:43pm
EQAL added Topher Conway as Business Development and Sales.

Posted 8/8/11 at 2:07pm
EQAL added Greg Goodfried as Co-Founder & President.

Posted 4/16/08 at 9:45pm
EQAL added Miles Beckett as Co-Founder and CEO.

Posted 4/16/08 at 9:45pm
EQAL received $3.5M in Unattributed funding. (5/23/11)

Posted 5/23/11 at 6:26pm via techcrunch.com
EQAL received $5M in Series A funding. (4/16/08)

Posted 4/16/08 at 9:45pm via paidcontent.org
EQAL — Spark Capital buyout (3/29/10)

Posted 3/29/10 at 8:19pm via allthingsd.com