Music, TV, and intellectual property all have the potential of influencing what content we consume and what technology we use to go about our daily lives. And because all three of these are huge, established, and complex industries, they are ripe for scalable solutions. It’s solutions with this kind of mass potential that are exactly what we go for in our San Francisco seed program. Here are some of the companies in our current batch who are aiming to challenge the ways these industries function and monetize: 

As the TV industry moves to the internet, content creators are building a multitude of apps to get their content distributed on every Smart TV platform. FitzyTV is an open internet TV platform designed to allow users to watch and record every internet TV channel that supports online streaming in a single user interface on their Smart TV device.  Their “web crawler” scans the internet for the best channels and allows users to unlock paid content with their subscription services, or just enjoy a selection of free internet television.

Their Founder and CEO, James Fitzgerald, said FitzyTV’s mission is “to organize and surface the best TV content available on the internet to our users, and let them record their favorites with our patent-pending Cloud DVR technology.”

In the music streaming economy, play count is the foundation of royalty revenues paid. How many times a song gets played determines the music label and artists’ cut of advertising revenue and subscription fees generated by each streaming service. 

Beatdapp found that there were many discrepancies between the reported and actual streaming play counts across 600+ global services. Beatdapp integrates with streaming services to accurately track and authenticate songs played globally to eliminate play count tracking errors, reduce the administrative costs related to audits, and help detect fraudulent plays from stream farms. 

Their CEO, Andrew Batey explained to us that they “aren’t looking to disintermediate the market. Instead, our mission is to provide music labels, distributors, and streaming services with the technology required to be successful in today’s new streaming economy.” 

In an age of constant innovation, patents and other intellectual property can become a company’s most valuable asset.  In the words of their founder, Alec Sorensen, “companies only use 5% of their IP. Tradespace is unlocking that value by providing an IP marketplace that makes it easier for companies to buy, sell, license IP.” 

These companies embody the innovation we try to foster in each of our batches at our San Francisco accelerator. After working for four months with our mentors, the program finishes with the batch’s finale event: Demo Day. This is an invite-only event for active, accredited investors to view our most recent accelerator startups before they graduate. If you are an accredited investor or member of the press interested in attending, click here. 

For more sneak peeks at our Batch 25 companies, stay tuned for more “ones to watch” on our blog or check out the full list of companies in our Batch 25 announcement. 

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