Company: VideoBloom Inc.

• Author: Peterson, Eric
• Position: TECH STARTUP

INITIAL LIGHT BULB

The serial entrepreneur behind VideoBloom doesn't stay in one place for too long.

"Every four years, five years, there's a new project," said Antoine Toffa, the company's founder and CEO.

In 1996, Toffa started Trip.com--which he subsequently sold for more than $300 million--and in 2000 he launched tamtam.com, an online import-export company.

A native Frenchman, Toffa connected with Russian-born "tech guy" Andrei Taraschuk three years ago online. Soon they learned they both were in Denver and of the same entrepreneurial mindset, so they launched a company together, CrabDish, which sells tools and code to Web developers via the website AFComponents.com.

Then in 2006, Toffa looked to the YouTube boom for yet another startup in VideoBloom.

"The first evolution of the Web was bringing text and pictures to the world," he said. "It seems only natural to get more information from video. With the convergence of technologies like broadband and Flash and the popularity of video-sharing sites, it became clear there would be big potential for businesses to use video on the Web."

Taraschuk and Toffa incorporated the company in 2006, and VideoBloom's applications now get "millions of page views" a month, said Toffa: "We're growing very fast."

IN A NUTSHELL

VideoBloom is positioning itself as a one-stop-shop for online video, from production to distribution to tracking and monetization. In March 2007, the company launched its first product, VB Platform (now dubbed VB Online Video), which allows users to upload, manage and distribute video, with three levels of service. The most basic--self-service--is free, hosting included, and allows users to essentially do it themselves. For a fee--usually in the thousands of dollars--VideoBloom offers streaming, editing and even production services to clients.

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"Businesses use video for marketing, training, product launches, PR, plant...