I Want To Change TV: Mitch Berman, CEO of ZillionTV (Part 5)

SM: The one thing I see in what you have talked about is the user experience. The user interaction with Netflix is fragmented. You are saying that you have cut out the computer and are allowing the entire experience to happen via a remote control. MB: That is one of the key differentiating factors between

Read Full Article »

I Want To Change TV: Mitch Berman, CEO of ZillionTV (Part 4)

SM: As a result, the user is sitting back as opposed to sitting forward. With that, let’s take the next step into the ecosystem. ZillionTV comes into this universe; is it the only player that has established itself in this frame of reference or are there other players sharing the space? MB: There are many

Read Full Article »

I Want To Change TV: Mitch Berman, CEO of ZillionTV (Part 3)

SM: At the same time, our iMac screen has almost the same resolution as this TV screen. They are incredibly high-resolution. MB: What is really important for this discussion is to take ourselves out of Silicon Valley to the rank and file television viewer in this country. HDTV, or high definition, is growing in consumer

Read Full Article »

I Want To Change TV: Mitch Berman, CEO of ZillionTV (Part 2)

SM: They are using the Internet connection to download movies to the set-top box and view them from there. MB: Yes. Again, you have three distinct flavors: Internet TV companies going directly to the PC, traditional operators, and independent boxes all providing video services. That is a highly competitive and confused landscape.

I Want To Change TV: Mitch Berman, CEO of ZillionTV (Part 1)

Mitch Berman has 27 years’ experience in the television entertainment industry including pioneering work in pay TV and interactive TV services. His resume includes stints at HBO, E! Entertainment Television, Sky Network in New Zealand and OpenTV. His latest venture is the founding of ZillionTV. SM: Let’s set the stage for the beginning of your

Read Full Article »

From Greenpeace To Green Power: Sungevity CEO Danny Kennedy (Part 7)

SM: What is the financing strategy that was utilized to build this company? DK: We did a faint angel round with a couple of institutional investors. We raised $2.7 million in 2007, mostly from friends and family, including Cate Blanchett and her husband. My partner’s family is out of New York and is invested in different

Read Full Article »

From Greenpeace To Green Power: Sungevity CEO Danny Kennedy (Part 6)

SM: What do you think about small solar farms? Is that part of the industry’s future? DK: Right now I think it is problematic because it is credit-dependent. When I see the future beyond the reign of coal oil, nukes, and gas, we will replace it with a distributed energy utility solution. Every appropriate home

Read Full Article »

From Greenpeace To Green Power: Sungevity CEO Danny Kennedy (Part 5)

SM: We have discussed your interface with the customer. What is the process with your contractors once you have a qualified lead to provide to them? DK: We call them pre-wrapped customers because they are not only qualified customers, but from our backend design system we have already developed the kit. We provide the specified

Read Full Article »