Boomtown grad Content BLVD launches platform, puts down Colorado roots
BOULDER — Those mountains. Sometimes you just can’t let them go.
Such is the case for the founders of marketing startup Content BLVD. CEO Dan Ripoll and crew came to Boulder last year to participate in the Boomtown Boulder accelerator with every intention of heading back to Los Angeles upon graduation. But more than a year later, Ripoll and Content BLVD haven’t gone anywhere, at least not out of sight of the Rockies anyway. Enamored with the locale and the area’s startup culture, they stayed in Colorado and operated virtually for several months before recently setting up shop at Galvanize in downtown Denver.
And, armed with a fresh seed round of funding that’s grown to $490,000 so far, the company this week officially launched its online platform that connects consumer-product companies with YouTube video creators to help them provide meaningful content for their target customers.
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Content BLVD’s platform had been in beta testing since the spring, but it’s gone live with a new wrinkle. The production of the YouTube videos is free to the companies.
If a company has a product and wants to create a video, say, showing consumers how to use it for a certain function, Content BLVD matches the company with a YouTube video creator with expertise in the area and facilitates the shipping of product to the video creator. Once the video is made, companies can license the videos through a Content BLVD widget placed in point-of-sale locations on their websites to help spur purchasing decisions.
“The idea is to populate those product pages with the content that will inform consumers and give them the info they need to buy,” Ripoll said in an interview Friday.
Ripoll said video is one of the strongest connections brands can make with consumers, but churning out professional-looking videos can be expensive for small companies.
The free production approach “is our way of democratizing access to video and helping smaller brands unlock the power of video to create awareness and drive sales.”
The most recent investor in Content BLVD is Denver-based Rockies Venture Club, pitching in $90,000. Content BLVD, founded by Ripoll along with chief marketing officer Mike Sobol and digital marketing strategist Michelle Penick, is now up to 11 employees, nine of whom are in Denver.
“The plan was to head back to L.A. last summer, but we kind of fell in love with the Denver-Boulder startup ecosystem and stayed here,” Ripoll said.
BOULDER — Those mountains. Sometimes you just can’t let them go.
Such is the case for the founders of marketing startup Content BLVD. CEO Dan Ripoll and crew came to Boulder last year to participate in the Boomtown Boulder accelerator with every intention of heading back to Los Angeles upon graduation. But more than a year later, Ripoll and Content BLVD haven’t gone anywhere, at least not out of sight of the Rockies anyway. Enamored with the locale and the area’s startup culture, they stayed in Colorado and operated virtually for several months before recently setting up shop at Galvanize in…
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