Eighteen months ago, I had breakfast with John Heilemann and he told me that his world, political media, was challenged in the shift from linear television (ie cable news) to real-time mobile (ie Twitter). He saw an opportunity to address that by filling the void in between them with news content that was made for real-time mobile consumption but had the journalistic integrity and production values of linear television.
I said to him “you should start a company to fill that void and you should get John Battelle to join you in starting that business.”
John did exactly that and six months later USV provided the seed capital along with True Ventures and a fantastic group of angel investors.
Their company is called Recount Media and it has stayed largely under the radar for the last ten months as they built the team and started producing news content that promises “no bullshit, no bad faith, in five minutes or less.”
Having provided the initial funding for Twitter twelve years ago, we at USV are acutely aware that the disruption in media that it caused has been both positive and negative and that there is more work to do to make sure our society is well served by both the Fourth and Fifth estates.
We think that the work John, John and the dream team of journalists, producers, technologists, and business people are doing will make a material impact on filling the void and we are proud to be supportive investors in Recount Media.
If you want to see what Recount is all about you can download the Recount iOS app and/or sign up for their videos delivered via a daily email at the bottom of their website. You can also follow the Recount on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.