Company CLVR LLC.

• Author: Peterson, Eric
• Position: TECH STARTUP SMALL biz

INITIAL LIGHT BULB Mike Wagle and his brother Scotty Starkweather launched Kingpin Performance, an automotive e-commerce site, in 2000 and were early adopters of online video and social media for marketing purposes. "We built our business on that," Wagle says. "It was pretty early for video."

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After selling Kingpin in 2007, they embarked on a new startup in CLVR. "We thought we'd do what we did very well and solve the problem of monetizing video on the Web." The company now has 30 employees, with Wagle serving as its CEO.

IN A NUTSHELL CLVR makes online video interactive. "You take any piece of video content, tag any item in the video, and you can associate any action with that hotspot," Wagle says. "A guy's wearing a shirt (in a video), click on the shirt, and you can buy the shirt. What used to be a branding action becomes a conversion opportunity." In other words, a viral video becomes a viral shopping cart. Users can either do the tagging themselves, or a CLVR employee will do it for them.

Wagie says the CLVR's video player "is very similar to YouTube. We host it and stream it. It's just a different video player." Users can still embed videos in all the usual spots, but the interactive element opens up numerous possibilities, he adds. 'You can create games--the easiest is a choose-your-own-adventure video. You can have Easter egg hunts and encourage multiple views. It's just a more interactive and engaging exercise."

There are several pricing models based on per-view and per-click metrics as well as flat fees for longer campaigns. Entry level is around $500, says Wagle, escalating to "tens of thousands of dollars."

The company also offers...