platforms. For example, more than 1.2 million people follow cooking show hosts The BBQ Pit Boys on Facebook. Health and fitness guru Scott Herman has more than 1.5 million YouTube subscribers.
McGuire says his team expects some of those fans to follow Gravy’s hosts when they begin streaming shows on the new platform.
“We need talented content creators to come in, create shows, and pull their audiences in,” he says.
Gravy does not plan to impose any sort of exclusivity agreements on its hosts, McGuire says. Part of the startup’s pitch to prospective hosts is that Gravy has developed “some very interesting ways to help them monetize the audiences that they have,” he says.
However, McGuire says that for now, he “can’t really get into the revenue model specifics.” He also declined to comment when asked whether the shows Gravy will stream might be simultaneously streamed on other video platforms.
Users who are unable to watch a show’s livestream will have the ability to “engage with the content after the fact,” McGuire says.
In order to continue building buzz, McGuire says Gravy plans to reveal a new host every two to three days leading up to next month’s launch.
The startup has eight employees in Madison, and also has an office in Minneapolis, where McGuire is based. He said he’d prefer not to reveal how many employees work from the Minnesota office.
Gravy raised slightly more than $1 million from investors in a seed funding round that closed earlier this year, McGuire says. Little Chute, WI-based New Capital Fund led the round. Several individual investors, some of whom backed previous ventures of Gravy’s founding team, also participated.
