Incubated: Media Camp Helps Startups Get Connected With Hollywood Decision-Makers

A few years ago, a couple of execs at Turner Broadcasting decided they wanted to find a way to better help startups looking to create media-focused products. And so, they created an incubator called Media Camp to guide those companies to success.

Launched at SXSW 2012, Media Camp was founded to identify interesting startups and help them build products that big media conglomerates would actually want and use. Up until that point, most startups entering the space had good ideas, but didn’t know how large media companies worked, or who they should contact to even get their foot in the door.

Today, the program is a joint initiative led by Turner Broadcasting in San Francisco and Warner Bros. Entertainment in Los Angeles. Media Camp is a 12-week program designed to connect founders with high-level mentors who know the business and can point them in the right direction when it comes to building products that work with media companies’ existing workflows.

And while it provides all the same mentorship that one might expect from a typical accelerator, it has one distinct advantage for startups looking to build tools around the media business. As part of Time Warner, the program can help make introductions to the decision makers within that company.

Since it’s focused on media specifically, startups that go through the program can find early customers and get the market validation they need. Either that, or they can get feedback from media companies about what they can do to improve their products and get them adopted in the market.

On the flip side, Time Warner gets an early look into upcoming startups and technologies that its units can use to improve their businesses. And in some cases, they are exposed to startups solving problems they didn’t even know they had.

Media Camp typically chooses 5-10 companies per class, and looks for those which already have product in the market, or one that is close to launch. To find out more about the incubator, check out the video above. And be sure to watch some of our other incubated videos while you’re at it.

This is the sixth episode of a TechCrunch TV series called Incubated. We’ll have a new episode after Wednesday afternoon for the next two-and-a-half months, each of which will take a look at what it’s like inside some of the top accelerators in the U.S. Please join us each week to find out how all the different incubators and accelerators help out the startups that participate in them.

Check out all the episodes of Incubated here: