MindBites officially launches its publishing platform for video instructional clips today, and also announces a $1 million Series A investment from True Ventures. I had some time to explore MindBites and chat with CEO and founder Jason Reneau, and learned more about the concepts behind MindBites.
At first glance, MindBites doesn’t look terribly different from anything you’ve seen out there. The site is rather simplistic, though this lends to the company’s ideals for presenting MindBites as a virtual podium of sorts, for those that upload content to the site. What MindBites has done to set itself apart from the likes of 5min, VideoJug and others, is create a marketplace where user-generated content becomes a commerce-driven supply for those out there in need of instructional videos.
There are a few other instructional video sites out there with a central goal of creating a marketplace, but MindBites leverages its simplicity in order to focus on the content, while still presenting value for the content creators and the buyers. Similar to VideoJug, content can be saved on any device, and the creator can attach additional material such as transcripts.
The end result is a service that actually bridges the gap between those that appreciate video instruction and those that don’t need a convoluted web 2.0 approach to learning. This is one thing I noticed almost immediately, upon first exploring the site.
I’m still waiting for features like chapter selection to become standardized across how-to video networks, but as video stretches across services, platforms and devices, it’s still beneficial to watch this particular sector grow, especially as it looks to monetize video content as an extension of a video’s content creator.