Idea Lab

5 Tips for Picking a Business Partner

by Tom Grasty
2010 Knight News Challenge Winner

Two and a half years ago, I co-founded Stroome, a collaborative online video editing and publishing platform and 2010 Knight News Challenge winner. Like most first-time entrepreneurs, I was under the impression that the decisions made after we went live were the most important. It turns out, the success of most startups begins with a decision that's made months -- sometimes years -- before the business ever even sees the light of day. I'm talking about picking a partner. Recently, I was asked by Jason Nazar, founder of Docstoc and a big supporter of the L.A. entrepreneurial community, if I...

• June 27, 2012
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The Difference Between 'Invention' and 'Innovation'

by Tom Grasty
2010 Knight News Challenge Winner

Two and a half years ago, I co-founded Stroome, a collaborative online video editing and publishing platform and 2010 Knight News Challenge winner. From its inception, the site received a tremendous amount of attention. The New School, USC Annenberg, the Online News Association and, ultimately, the Knight Foundation all saw something interesting in what we were doing. We won awards; we were invited to present at conferences; we were written about in the trades and featured in over 150 blogs. Yet despite all the accolades, not once did the word "invention" creep in. "Innovation," it turns out, was the word...

• March 29, 2012
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The Difference Between a 'Pivot' and a 'Reboot'

by Tom Grasty
2010 Knight News Challenge Winner

Two and a half years ago, I co-founded Stroome, a collaborative online video editing and publishing platform and 2010 Knight News Challenge winner. But the site you see today is very different than what was initially developed at USC Annenberg's pioneering Program for Online Communities in the fall of 2009. Over the last 24 months, we've changed our look; we've changed the way users interact with the site; we've even changed our product offering. On the surface, it may seem that our strategic direction has been fraught with impatience and indecision. I can assure you, however, none of these changes...

• February 22, 2012
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5 Keys to a Killer Presentation

by Tom Grasty
2010 Knight News Challenge Winner

Two and a half years ago, I co-founded Stroome, a collaborative online video editing and publishing platform and 2010 Knight News Challenge winner. There are a lot of uncertainties in the startup game. But one thing is for sure: When it comes to presenting your product to potential investors, customers and partners, you're always on stage. We first unveiled our platform at USC Annenberg's pioneering Program for Online Communities in the fall of 2009. Nearly three years -- and probably a hundred presentations later -- we're still showing off our wares. Recently, I was asked by Jason Nazar, founder of...

• January 30, 2012
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3 Keys to Naming Your Product

by Tom Grasty
2010 Knight News Challenge Winner

Two and a half years ago, I co-founded Stroome, a collaborative online video editing and publishing platform and 2010 Knight News Challenge winner. Considering the fact that "video" is one of the most searchable words on the web, our first startup challenge -- actually coming up with a name for our site -- proved to be extremely daunting. Recently, I was asked by Jason Nazar, founder of Docstoc and a big supporter of the L.A. entrepreneurial community, if I had any tips for startups regarding choosing a name for their product. A short, 3-minute video response can be found at...

• January 9, 2012
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The Pros & Cons of Hiring Third-Party Vendors

by Tom Grasty
2010 Knight News Challenge Winner

Two and a half years ago, I co-founded Stroome, a collaborative online video editing and publishing platform and 2010 Knight News Challenge winner. Originally started as a master's thesis project at USC's pioneering Annenberg Program on Online Communities, we didn't have all the resources necessary to build every piece of the product ourselves. As a result, we did something that many early stage startups do: We turned to a third-party vendor. Recently, I was asked by Jason Nazar, founder of Docstoc and a big supporter of the L.A. entrepreneurial community, if I had any tips for startups regarding the pros...

• December 12, 2011
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4 Tips for Finding the Right Web Developer

by Tom Grasty
2010 Knight News Challenge Winner

Two and a half years ago, I co-founded Stroome, a collaborative online video editing and publishing platform and 2010 Knight News Challenge winner. One of our first -- and biggest -- hurdles was finding someone who could actually build the product my partner and I wanted bring to market. But the real challenge, we quickly realized, wasn't just hiring a developer; it was hiring the right developer. Recently, I was asked by Jason Nazar, founder of Docstoc and a big supporter of the L.A. entrepreneurial community, if I had any tips for hiring the right developer to fill in the...

• November 15, 2011
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Lessons From the Entertainment Industry for the Digital Entrepreneur

by Tom Grasty
2010 Knight News Challenge Winner

I worked for 10 years in the film and television business as a development executive. I've spent the last two and a half years as co-founder of Stroome, an online video editing and publishing platform and 2010 Knight News Challenge winner. You might think that these two things wouldn't be related. But, they're actually more closely connected than you'd suspect. Recently, I was asked by Jason Nazar, founder of Docstoc and a big supporter of the L.A. entrepreneurial community, what lessons from my entertainment background have been helpful as I've transitioned into the digital space. A link to that video...

• October 31, 2011
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The New News Paradigm: 'Pivot or Perish'

by Tom Grasty
2010 Knight News Challenge Winner

At the recent MIT-Knight Civic Media Conference, I had the pleasure of speaking to 16 of the most promising thinkers in the area of digital news. Culled together from myriad of disciplines and backgrounds, some had already established themselves as pioneers in the digital space.Others had come from legacy newsrooms. A few had found their voices in the field. But regardless of their backgrounds, they all were united by a drive to innovate, inform and empower. In short, these 16 new news entrepreneurs had come to Cambridge, Mass., with a plan: Reinvent the news business. But if I had just...

• July 5, 2011
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R.I.P. Flip Cam: The Smartphone Did It (Not Cisco)

by Tom Grasty
2010 Knight News Challenge Winner

Over the last three years, I've attended all three TEDx conferences on the idyllic campus of my old alma mater, the University of Southern California. And it's been my experience that TEDxUSC is where you go to be inspired, not have your dreams relegated to the heap bin of "what if..." But for a brief, fleeting moment last Tuesday, I was certain that all the hard work done by myself and fellow Stroome co-founder, Nonny de la Pena, was about to go the way of...well, the Flip. There I was sitting in the audience along with my fellow 1,200 TEDxers...

• April 25, 2011
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Will the Next Revolution be Stroomed?

by Tom Grasty
2010 Knight News Challenge Winner

When you think of the recent unrest in the Middle East, social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube immediately come to mind. Yet in an era where the revolution no longer need be televised -- now it's tweeted -- wouldn't a collaborative online video editing platform that allows producers, correspondents and reporters to create news reports in real time be a welcome addition to the insurgents' arsenal? Well, such a tool does exist. It's called Stroome. And in a time when the journalist's traditional role -- to build and curate an informed public -- is rapidly eroding as...

• February 15, 2011
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How to Build a Website: One Piece at a Time

by Tom Grasty
2010 Knight News Challenge Winner

The likelihood that an online video editing site, a 21st century technological innovation if ever there were one, would draw inspiration from a 34-year-old Johnny Cash song about a broken-down, piece of junk Cadillac is, admittedly, a tad anachronistic. But as my partner, Nonny de la Peña, and I roll up our sleeves, crawl back under the hood and start fine-tuning Stroome, one of this year's Knight News Challenge winners, it seems we've found our muse in the most unlikely of places. "One Piece at a Time" Released in 1976, the Johnny Cash song "One Piece at a Time" tells...

• September 22, 2010
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Stroome Helps Journalists Collaborate via Online Video Remixing

by Tom Grasty
2010 Knight News Challenge Winner

This post was co-authored by Nonny de la Peña Stroome, a winner of the 2010 Knight News Challenge grant, fosters a social network that allows journalists to collaborate together by sharing content and stories that can be edited right in a browser and then pushed across the web. Prototyped at USC Annenberg's pioneering Online Program on Online Communities in the fall of 2008, the idea was strikingly simple: Create a place where journalists can efficiently work together to create a culture that offers accurate, contextual news in real-time. The result was Stroome, an online video editing platform crossed with a...

• August 20, 2010
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