The Canadian Film Centre Media Lab’s ideaBoost accelerator program’s first cohort of companies have taken the wraps off their digital entertainment products, and the public is being invited to vote for the prospective startups that would like to be part of the second cohort.
There are seven companies in Cohort 1 who, after having tweaked and refined their business case, product and go-to-market plan with advice and support from ideaBoost’s mentors, recently pitched their companies to the accelerator’s three founders – Corus Entertainment, Google and Shaw Media.
Most of the participants in the first cohort were game-related, but there was also The Ghost Town Project, a “video-based transmedia initiative” on abandoned buildings, and The Buffer Film Festival, which aims to be an annual digital film festival for the YouTube generation.
“This first cohort of digital entertainment companies represents some of the most forward-thinking content entrepreneurs in this sector,” said Ana Serrano, chief digital officer for CFC Media Lab, in a statement. “By taking advantage of what ideaBoost has to offer, and developing products whose intellectual property, processes, and underlying technologies can be re-used, re-mixed, and leveraged over time, these seven companies are well-poised for success and a sustainable future.”
The deadline for applications for ideaBoost’s second cohort is April 18th, and public voting is now open online for those potential startups that have already applied. The leader so far is “Hello Cool World Dream Machine,” which its creators describe as a distribution platform for promoting a social cause, followed by a hub for digital dads, called Dads. On the B2B side, “Lightning Platform” is described as a platform for building and managing social applications as a service.