Although CyberStudios bills itself as "Hollywood coming to the Internet," it claims it's only borrowed the business model from the movie industry. The company's chairman, Steven Koltai, likes to say, "Warner Brothers doesn't make movies, they hire people to make movies." And such is the case with CyberStudios' Web sites.
Set in a brick warehouse in Culver City, CyberStudios contracts with independent Web developers to work on a client project, much like 20th Century Fox might hire various production houses for a film. The 15-member staff cuts deals with clients who want to get into online commerce. Then, Steven's team provides the marketing, sales, legal, accounting, and technical support to an army of more than 60 affiliated developers to get the job done. "One group might be a good database developer, another would work on designing the front end," says VP of creative development Leila Conners.
Steven started CyberStudios over a year ago with the idea of creating "themed commerce environments," his own jargon for entertaining Web sites that help consumers buy online. For example, their first major project, Wedding411, is due to launch in July and will generate revenue through online transactions. It's designed to help users plan and purchase through intelligent agents.
"Wedding411 follows you though the site, learning about your choices," says Leila. "It's not going to offer a US$500 place-setting if that's not what you're looking for." A recent bride herself, Leila came up with the idea for the site after getting frustrated with all the "pink and lacy" wedding planners that are currently out there on the Web. "I wanted a resource I could respect," she says.
The company's test case, Wedding411 was developed by firms like Organa, Sequoia Softworks, and Going Home Productions. The themed site is a model for many new projects the company hopes to tackle, like a game site for Activision or a commerce site for NPR.
To coordinate this growth, CyberStudios needs a developer-relations manager who knows the Web development community like a casting director knows character actors. CyberStudios' new hire can't be shy. "All I want you to do is know every Web developer," explains Leila. "You'd go to parties, demos, conferences, and hang out with them at every chance." She pictures someone who's been building Web sites for a while. Although CyberStudios does not pay the inflated salaries of Hollywood, which range around $45,000 to $55,000, the money is competitive with Web industry averages. And Steven stresses that the developer-relations manager will get equity in the company in addition to the paycheck.
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