Guide (software company)

Guide was a US technology startup company developing a newsreader app that translates text from online news sources, blogs and social media streams into streaming audio and video. The company's apps include animal character readers.[1] The company was founded in 2012 by chief executive officer Freddie Laker, and privately launched its mobile app in alpha in February 2013.

Guide
IndustrySoftware
FoundedMiami, Florida (2012 (2012))
FounderFreddie Laker
Key people
Freddie Laker, CEO
Leslie Bradshaw, COO

The company closed in 2014.[2]

Guide app

Guide is a visual newsreader app for personal computers, mobile devices and Smart TV,[3][4] which uses text-to-speech and avatar technologies to turn text-based online news, blogs and social media updates into video content.[5][6][7] These technologies allow Guide to turn articles into news program-style episodes, incorporating video or images from the original source, while the text content of the article or blog post is read aloud by a virtual news anchor.[8] The app creates a "channel" for each site or news source, within which individual blog posts or news articles are separate episodes.[9]

Guide allows users to choose from three different virtual news anchors in the base application,[10][11] and the company has stated it will offer additional avatars and newsroom backgrounds for purchase.[7][9] An alpha version of the app, for iPad only,[3] was privately released on February 8, 2013.[5]

Screenshot showing the Guide app's user interface

Background

Freddie Laker, former vice president of strategy at Sapient Nitro and founder of digital agency iChameleon Group,[7][3] developed the idea for Guide in 2011 after he noticed the rising trend in Smart TVs and Smart TV content at that year's CES.[9] He observed that the apps for Smart TV did not provide content in a TV-friendly format and decided to create an app that would provide a "TV experience".[12] In January 2013, Laker was joined at the company by chief operating officer Leslie Bradshaw.[13] The company is based in Miami, Florida, and has seven employees as of February 2013.[9][14]

Guide closed its seed funding round in February 2013. It raised $1 million from investors including Sapient, the Knight Foundation, MTV founder Bob Pittman, founding Google team member Steve Schimmel, and actor Omar Epps.[4][5] The company stated that the seed money will be used to focus on further development of the Guide app and pursuing patents for its technology.[4][7] In February 2013, Guide was one of 65 companies out of 500 applicants selected to demonstrate its app in the annual South by Southwest (SXSW) Accelerator in Austin.[11][15]

References
  3. Samantha Murphy (5 February 2013). "This App Packages News and Social Streams Into Video". Mashable. Retrieved 13 February 2013.
  4. Ken Yeung (5 February 2013). "Guide raises $1m to create a video news channel of websites read by avatars, now in private alpha". The Next Web. Retrieved 13 February 2013.
  5. Darrell Etherington (5 February 2013). "Guide Raises $1M In Seed Funding To Replace TV News With Feeds And Virtual Anchors". TechCrunch. Retrieved 13 February 2013.
  6. Liz Gannes (5 February 2013). "A Passive Newsreader App: Guide Wants Its Avatars to Read Your News". All Things Digital. Retrieved 13 February 2013.
  7. Kira M. Newman (5 February 2013). "Don't have time to read? Gui.de turns your news into video". Tech Cocktail. Retrieved 13 February 2013.
  8. "Blog feeds turned into personalized TV show". Springwise. 13 February 2013. Retrieved 15 February 2013.
  9. "Miami-based startup turns your RSS feed into a personalized newscast". Contagious Magazine. 5 February 2013. Archived from the original on 12 March 2013. Retrieved 13 February 2013.
  10. Yi Chen (11 February 2013). "Digital anchors present any blog posts as TV news". psfk. Retrieved 13 February 2013.
  11. Nancy Dahlberg. "News: Miami startup Guide receives $1 million in seed funding; next stop SXSW". The Miami Herald. Retrieved 13 February 2013.
  12. Ellis Hamburger (5 February 2013). "Can Guide's digital news anchors replace daytime TV?". The Verge. Retrieved 13 February 2013.
  13. Kira M. Newman (16 January 2013). "Leslie Bradshaw leaves JESS3, starts afresh as COO of Guide". Tech Cocktail. Retrieved 17 January 2013.
  14. Anna Heim (1 January 2013). "Awesome Offices: Inside 8 fantastic startup workplaces in Miami". The Next Web. Retrieved 13 February 2013.
  15. "SXSW Accelerator 2013 Finalists". South by Southwest. SXSW Inc. 2013. Archived from the original on 26 February 2013. Retrieved 18 February 2013.
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