“One love, one heart” – Bob Marley
A year ago, Miami startup Videoo enabled Bob Marley fans around the world to wish the late music legend a happy birthday. More than 100 people uploaded short videos, and Videoo’s proprietary technology automatically connected the clips into one crowd-sourced compilation.
“That was nice but this year we wanted to do something with a bigger positive social mission,” said Barry Stamos, co-founder and CEO of Videoo, a collaborative platform to collect and curate social video playlists.
On Friday, which would have been Bob Marley’s 70th birthday, the Marley family and Videoo are teaming up to launch #Share1Love. The aim of the campaign: Allowing anyone to show how they share acts of love and kindness, while simultaneously igniting a feel-good social video movement with a charitable twist. “My father’s universal message of love, peace and unity continues to transcend borders, cultures and generations,” said Cedella Marley. “#Share1Love is an extension of his vision, encouraging people to unite through positivity and hope and give back to those in need.”
For every person who uploads a video showing how they share love and kindness with the world, Videoo will donate $1 to charity: water, a nonprofit that brings clean drinking water to developing countries. Stamos admits the idea was partially inspired by the viral success of last year’s Ice Bucket Challenge.
Videoo’s media technology has also come a long way in a year, and the campaign will provide an excellent use case for the startup, said Stamos. Videoo organizes user-generated social videos into playlists, allowing the community to watch, vote, add, share and remix. The app for iOS and Android is free, and an improved version with new features will hit the Apple store next week, said Stamos, who founded the company with Jorge Moreno, a Latin Grammy winner who inspired the idea, Heidi Finn Roberts, Joshua Stedman and Abraham Elias. Since last year, Videoo also revamped videoo.com and launched Videoo Pro, a platform for enterprise clients. Videoo has eight fulltime employees and another dozen contractors, Stamos said.
To fund Videoo’s development, Stamos recently raised $1.6 million, part of a $2.1 million seed round. Eleven investors came through the local angel network Accelerated Growth Partners, including Alberto Beeck, Ernest Bachrach, Peter Kellner and Thomas Wenrich, Stamos said. Locally Krillion Ventures is also an investor, and the round includes a Brazilian billionaire who prefers to remain private, he said.
On Thursday, Ziggy Marley kicked off #Share1Love with a video and the family shared it on the Bob Marley's 76 million Facebook fans; within an hour, the post garnered more than 18,000 likes. Others have already started contributing videos, which can be uploaded to bobmarley.com/share1love, where there are instructions. Participants are sharing clips on social media with the hashtag #Share1Love.
The campaign will run until June, and Stamos believes it will attract worldwide participation – and result in a hefty donation to a good cause. “We are proud to be a Miami startup and hope everyone locally and in LATAM supports #Share1Love," he said. “Let’s get together and feel alright!"
Follow Nancy Dahlberg on Twitter @ndahlberg.
Posted Feb. 5, 2015