10 VCs say interactivity, regulation and independent creators will reshape digital media in 2021

The digital media industry will give us plenty to talk about this year.

When we last surveyed venture capitalists about their media investments, the big topic was the impact that the pandemic would have on the industry, and on the prospects for new startups.

Obviously, the pandemic hasn’t gone away, but when asked to predict the biggest storylines for 2021, VCs pointed to themes as varied as new distribution models, new kinds of interactivity, new tools for creators, the return of advertising business models and even the role of media in a democratic society.

“We are headed toward a content universe where consumers’ power of choice grows to new heights — what premium content to consume and pay for, and how to consume it,” Javelin’s Alex Gurevich wrote. “The consumers will have the final choice! Not traditional media and content distribution companies.”

For this new survey, we heard from 10 VCs — nine who invest in media startups, plus a tenth who’s seeing plenty of media pitches and was happy to share her thoughts. We asked them about the likelihood of further industry consolidation, whether we’ll see more digital media companies take the SPAC route and of course, what they’re looking for in their next investment.

Here’s who we surveyed:

Read their full responses below.

What do you think will be the biggest trend or story in digital media in 2021?

Daniel Gulati: Defining media’s role in a democratic society. What accountability exists when an individual company’s pursuit of scale leads to the spread of disinformation? When a platform’s terms of service appears to collide with constitutional rights, who makes the call and what happens? To what extent should governments support the viability of local media organizations in the face of global competition and a rapidly changing digital landscape?

These are high stakes issues that will be front and center through the year.

Alex Gurevich: The continued disruption of content distribution models, whether that’s the debundling of cable via the plethora of SVOD services, or the way new content is released (i.e., on-demand at home versus movie theaters). We are headed toward a content universe where consumers’ power of choice grows to new heights — what premium content to consume and pay for, and how to consume it. The consumers will have the final choice! Not traditional media and content distribution companies. The pandemic has greatly accelerated this trend.

Matthew Hartman: The two largest social networks, Twitter and Facebook, removed the account of a sitting president and a set of related, follower accounts. This has fundamentally reset the media stack. This will accelerate action the government had already planned to take, including to reshape Section 230. The ripples will be felt throughout media, affecting how news is distributed through social media, what startups can use bigger platforms to grow, what the exit options are for small talent acquisitions and the fragmentation already occurring.

Second, the rise of synthetic media. Algorithmically enhanced or created media is a shift we identified at Betaworks in 2018 and in 2021 it will only increase in scale and scope. Yes, this affects deep fake detection (with companies like Sensity.AI leading the way) and other nefarious uses — but it will also start to fundamentally reshape the way media is created, from the cost of animation to the cost of writing stories, to editing and creating CGI.

Third, game streaming will continue to grow, with audiences that are starting to blow away those of regular TV. An enormous number of people tuned in last year to watch Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez play Among Us on Twitch with popular streamers (she hit 435,000 concurrent viewers at one point). And that wasn’t even close to the biggest event ever on Twitch, David Martinez, aka TheGrefg, hit 2.4 million concurrent viewers for the unveiling of his new Fortnite skin. Game publishers have finally started to understand the power of streamers not just to launch a new game, but to revive old ones, with games that groups of streamers can play together (like Among Us or Rust) soaring in popularity this past year.

Jerry Lu: The emergence of interactive media platforms outside of just gaming.

Because of their isolation due to COVID, people are yearning for social interaction and we’re seeing greater engagement across platforms like Twitch and Zoom, which make interactive communications possible. Previous iterations of media platforms were top-down broadcast, whereby companies produced content they thought consumers would like. Over the past five years, we’ve started to see a greater shift toward the long tail, whereby content comes straight from the consumer.

Gaming and esports were at the forefront of this shift from passive content viewing to interactive entertainment experiences. I believe that 2021 will be the year when we see platforms beginning to embrace interactivity as a form of audience participation, blurring the line between viewer and active participant. I’m excited at the prospect of seeing this form of interactive content consumption applied to other sectors, like education, childcare and commerce, to name a few.

Jana Messerschmidt: We will see a proliferation of products that enable content creators to build businesses outside of traditional media companies. These creators will leverage their existing brand, following and social media engagement to become entrepreneurs, building revenue streams across multiple different products.

There are a plethora of new tools for creators: for writers (Substack, Medium), personalized video shoutouts from creators (Cameo*, PearPop), new audio platforms (LockerRoom*, Clubhouse) or all-in-one tools for creators that include merch, subscriptions, tipping and more (FourthWall* ). Now is the time for creators to be rewarded by their fans for their content creation.

Historically, the big social platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Snap*, Twitter, TikTok) have failed to create meaningful paths for their creators to monetize. They make money from advertisers and thus their resources are focused on those advertising customer demands.

  • denotes Lightspeed portfolio company

Michael Palank: If 2020 was the year every major media company either announced or grew their direct-to-consumer video/audio/gaming offering, 2021 will be the year where those offerings optimize and differentiate or die. We expect the hunger for original content to continue, but we feel the type of content will continue to diversify from both a story and IP perspective and a format perspective. It is not unthinkable that a major media company like Apple, Amazon or Disney looks to acquire Clubhouse in 2021.

As the lines between video games and filmed entertainment continue to blur we can also envision new companies popping up to take advantage of this trend. I also feel these content platforms will need to differentiate by way of better discovery and personalization.

I fully expect every major media company from Disney to Apple to Amazon to Microsoft will be looking for new and innovative ways to separate themselves from the rest of the pack in 2021.

Marlon Nichols: I think that the continued creation of streaming platforms from content creators/owners (e.g., Disney+, HBO Max, etc.) will force downward subscription pricing adjustments across the board and streaming platforms will need to revisit advertising as a revenue stream. That said, we know that watching ads on a paid platform won’t fly with consumers so I believe we’ll see contextually relevant product placement become the accepted form of brand/content collaboration going forward. I led MaC’s investment into Ryff because of this thesis.

Pär-Jörgen Pärson: Institutions and legislators will have a big effect on social media platforms. I think there will be pushes on antitrust behavior, and social networks will have to behave like media — meaning that they also need to take responsibility for the content that’s on their platform, not only from a user agreement standpoint like today but from an editorial standpoint. I think we’ll see many more editors-in-chief in this industry, as editorial becomes more and more important in our polarized world. This has the potential to change the social media platform landscape quite dramatically, and I’m not entirely sure yet on the long-term impact commercially.

M.G. Siegler: It’s sort of boring, but I wouldn’t be shocked if we see a swing back toward advertising-based models. I think there are two parts to this: First, if and when the pandemic recedes, I think a lot of traditional big advertising players like travel, will come roaring back. Second, it feels like there’s been a move away from advertising to paid subscriptions for a while now and I think these things are cyclical.

To be clear, I think both will continue to exist, I just think that after years of underindexing on paid subs, now we’re perhaps on the verge of overindexing on it … Obviously, advertising never went away, I just think it may be due for a bit of a renaissance (though I say that hoping the powers that be make those ads a better user experience — I think that’s the only way there’s not another backlash against them).

Laurel Touby: The biggest trend in digital media will be companies that don’t call themselves media companies, but that clearly draw from the business model playbook of media companies. For example: Companies that monetize their communities by giving sponsors and advertisers access to their audiences; or technology startups that sell wearable products and upsell their customers with access to premium high-value content.

Hans Tung: Contextual social networks: Video and livestreaming with the likes of TikTok and with other players like Instagram and Snap will continue to drive creativity and engagement. Clubhouse is now garnering a lot of attention as audio captures the attention of a new generation. This also creates new opportunities for established audio players like YY or Ximalaya. At the same time, apps like Clubhouse are an evolution of Snap or Twitter where influencers of all sorts gather to build a new following on new platforms.

However, one of the most interesting things we’re seeing is the emergence of contextual social networks that are focused on solving real-life problems. We see a lot more companies taking the best of audio and video experiences and experimenting with the next iteration of apps like Headspace and Calm, to solve societal issues, personal issues such as how to deal with anxiety, etc. These social networks may not scale as quickly or grab headlines like Clubhouse but they’re designed to bring people together to solve problems. We are also seeing professionalized networks such as Valence or Chief use these audio/video networks to address issues for a particular gender or underrepresented group, or apps that create virtual networking for communities.

Digital media delivered with differentiated experiences: Peloton may not immediately jump to mind as a digital-media company but they are one of the best at producing a high-value experience using extremely high-quality content that goes far beyond simple fitness or even the need for hardware. Increasingly more categories will become “Netflix-ized” where content is king and the experience is delivered through your smartphone.

As with Peloton, the experience is further enhanced with social interaction, such as leader boards, access to the best instructors, etc., which in turn expands the reach of the content. It’s a powerful loop that is driven by quality content, and the components feed off each other to make it more accessible. If you then couple it with Affirm to make it more affordable, you’ve got a flywheel on steroids. This pattern will emerge in other categories.

Consumerization of enterprise communication: Another aspect of media is communication, which we are seeing evolve in the enterprise space. It started with Slack a few years ago and Zoom more recently. Now with companies like Yak or the emergence of various conference apps, we see a higher usage frequency between companies, companies and their customers, and within the enterprise itself.

How much time are you spending looking at media startups right now?

Daniel Gulati: The breadth of innovation is exciting. You have live video and audio accelerating, the continued growth of OTT, new tools that democratize creativity, commerce integrations … the list goes on. As consumer attention continues to evolve, I am actively evaluating startups trying to create the future in each of these areas.

Alex Gurevich: A lot. Given my involvement with MasterClass, HitRecord and Mythical Games, I am seeing a great deal of innovative new models applied to media and content across every vertical. I am spending the most amount of time on online education, gaming and companies that have figured out how to harvest the power of positive communities online to create new digital media experiences.

Matthew Hartman: We spend our time on the future of how people communicate, which in technology, is synonymous with media, just not “Media” media. Three areas we’re interested in all flow from the idea of how to “Fix The Internet” and the ways it has failed us over the past decade. Those areas include rethinking social media business models in a way that would not create explicit incentives for misinformation and inflammatory rhetoric, and rethinking data privacy and user control of one’s own data — this may be heavily influenced by regulation, or intrinsically by the number of data breaches.

Jerry Lu: In venture, there’s been a general stigma around investing in media companies, because people’s first thought when they hear “media business” is a company building content for an ad revenue business model.

Yet that changed some time ago — new technology has created new opportunities and patterns for media creation, consumption and monetization. As a result, we’re entering a period in which a new class of creators is being created, while the creators themselves are becoming media brands in and of themselves. Not only that, as media has become democratized, content has evolved, taking shape in various forms and is being monetized through new business models and shared across different platforms.

I’m more excited than ever about the next generation of media companies, and believe that every company will have a media/content component, either as a top-of-funnel or as a communication vector.

Jana Messerschmidt: Media consumption continues to increase across all demographics and consumers are willing to pay in both traditional and new ways (direct payments to creators).

I spend about one-third to half of my time looking at these companies. These companies typically have the ability to become “outlier” companies that capture consumer mindshare on a near-daily basis.

Mike Palank: At MaC we are always on the lookout for what could become the next big media company. As a firm, we’re less focused on content-centric businesses and more on new platforms for content distribution and engagement, technology that enables new ways to create content or that enables altogether new formats of content or companies leveraging existing technology in new areas inside of media.

Pär-Jörgen Pärson: To be completely honest, I’ve lost optimism recently as I’ve been waiting for something that still hasn’t arrived with the decentralization of media — maybe 2021 will be the year where entrepreneurs seize the blockchain opportunity to create decentralized experiences.

We are on the lookout for ways to challenge the established media platforms in this context. As we’ve seen with recent backlash around WhatsApp, it’s all about privacy and ad-fueled models can’t continue to work in this reckoning context. We need new platforms, if not several new platforms. The blockchain still holds a lot of promise but we haven’t seen anything that’s exciting enough yet.

M.G. Siegler: Not a ton in what you might think of as “traditional” media, but it does feel like there are some underlying technology plays with a good level of interest/activity. And specific verticals continue to pop up with interest around timely things, like politics last year — probably something else in 2021 (hopefully!).

Laurel Touby: We don’t invest in media startups. But, given my background in media, we see our fair share of companies. I see a lot of small players that are trying to just eke out an existence by building up an attractive audience that advertisers will buy against. I also see platforms that target the diminishing number of “traditional media” players, thinking that they have any money to spend on such tools/services. Hint: They don’t. They are in the battle of their lives against larger “nonmedia” platforms such as Google, Facebook, etc.

Hans Tung: During the last 12 months, I was spending about ~20% of my time looking at digital media startups. Now I’m opening to startups working on contextual social networks that are solving real-world problems like depression or anxiety as well as those that are facilitating remote work.

What are you looking for in your next investment?

Daniel Gulati: In the media ecosystem, I think it’s really important to focus on uniqueness. In the past, you could show up with a pure audience aggregation story, even if you got there with content that was inherently substitutable. That play has expired. I am an investor in Shine, a self-care app that started because the founders didn’t see themselves or their experiences represented in mainstream wellness. The resulting service sat apart from the herd, and that’s how they gained their foothold early on. You are looking for a product that reflects founders with a unique insight or experience.

Also, revenue quality in the media world is critical — you need to understand why something won’t just be empty calories. I am an investor in The Athletic, who built a more productive system to serve the sports fan and get paid for doing so. Media founders should come to the table with a business model.

Alex Gurevich: I’m looking for founders who have a unique insight about how to combine world-class product and technology with amazing content and storytelling. I think beautiful experiences are possible when you combine these two disciplines together. Currently the majority of disruption in the industry is happening around distribution, but I think longer term, the content creation process itself will be disrupted and democratized.

Anyone with an interest in creativity and content creation will be able to get educated on the necessary skills (i.e., MasterClass, Udemy, etc.), start participating in the creative process themselves and with others (i.e., HitRecord) and eventually use world class software to create high-fidelity content (i.e., Unreal Engine, Unity, etc.), that will then be distributed and curated across various on-demand content providers and even gaming companies for immersive experiences.

Matthew Hartman: I’m looking for companies and products that give users voice independent of algorithmic magnified reach, give content and media creators ways to monetize directly, independent of algorithmic targeted advertising. Give users control of their data, applying next generation privacy tech. This will direct us toward technology that achieves Steve Jobs’ vision of being a “Bicycle For The Mind.”

Jerry Lu: Companies tackling curation. There’s never been more great content out there and it’s never been harder to consume it. It’s so hard to sort signal from noise and find the best stuff. The problem of discovery and decision-making have become more and more acute — the opportunity cost is higher and it’s more fragmented. The challenge will be balancing curation with scale and companies that are able to balance new, interesting content without damaging the consumers’ sense of being part of an intimate, familiar ecosystem will be exciting to watch.

Jana Messerschmidt: I look for companies that have the ability to become part of consumer pop culture. I often ask, “Can this company become a verb (a la “I TikTok,” “I Uber”)? When you become a verb, you are likely becoming a daily or weekly habit and have captured consumer mindshare.

Another thing I look for in becoming a verb is you’re usually figuring out a way to take something that seems complicated to do but makes it easy for the consumer. Before Uber, to have a personal driver show up to take you somewhere — that required so much work, there was no verb for it. With Uber, it was magic, and so magical that Uber became the verb to describe it.

TikTok is another great example of making content creation easy. One of the things that TikTok has done so well is that they’ve taken a single media entity (a dance, a song, a question) and allow people to add their own creative spin on top of it. I call this “WitHub” — GitHub for wit.

Mike Palank: At MaC we have a saying that we are looking for companies that are gap closing versus gap widening. We’re seeing this happen in what is being called the creator or passion economy. In the same way YouTube gave birth to a whole new class of creators a decade ago, companies like Substack, OnlyFans, Kapwing, Zebra IQ, Manticore Games and so many others are allowing all kinds of new creative talent to flourish and build meaningful careers. We are looking for companies that will continue to democratize the ability to earn a living as an artist.

M.G. Siegler: In media, as with all things, we’re looking at and trying to think about what the world looks like if and when the pandemic is over and what has changed and what startups can be in the right place at the right time to take advantage of some of those changes.

Laurel Touby: We are not looking at media :) We like SaaS/enterprise software across industries, fintech, e-comm platforms, logistics platforms.

Hans Tung: Remote work is huge and is definitely a category where we are spending time. It is better for society when tech talent is more distributed and you can democratize access to the startup ecosystem to be able to have people work from anywhere. It’s healthier for the local economy to have innovation centers emerging in different parts of the country and the world.

Do you anticipate further digital media consolidation this year? If so, how will this affect new companies entering the market?

Daniel Gulati: There are three lenses here. The first obvious one is, large media holding companies snapping up smaller fish that serve an audience and have a brand, but will just never grow into whales independently. In this loose capital environment, I suspect companies such as Group Nine or Bustle continue to execute this strategy, providing an exit valve for a few newer or smaller players. The second is, looking to attach a commerce business onto your existing audience business. FuboTV entering betting is a recent example. The third is bundling. If you are a vertical company, you are most likely thinking about how to organically or inorganically enter new markets and build off past success.

Alex Gurevich: I don’t foresee much consolidation between large-scale media companies in this current year. It seems that the opposite is happening, with all the large media companies launching their own video-on-demand services, as they have seen, via the Netflix and Disney+ example, how lucrative it can be. Some players, like Disney, are still ingesting their previous large acquisition (i.e., Fox), and companies like Apple are just starting to dip their toes in the water. That said, there is a massive bidding war going on for content and unique experiences amongst these big players as they vie for supremacy, so I do believe that there might be some consolidation among newer companies with unique offerings that will help these players compete for share of wallet and watch time.

Matthew Hartman: Yes, the question is what type of media. I think of media as communication that takes place in ever-evolving interfaces. The web became social, creating the first social media. That moved to mobile, and the past five years we’ve seen mobile splinter off into new interfaces from audio (e.g., such as Anchor and Gimlet in podcasting) to living inside of the text message (e.g., Giphy). Each iteration of that march leaves in its wake an opportunity for consolidation. This will primarily be driven by the fact that at the beginning of any of these phases, the best products get the most users (think of Serial or Tumblogs) and over time the ability to create strong products or content becomes the norm and user acquisition is mainly a function of paid marketing. When that happens, distribution overtakes product as the main value proposition.

Hans Tung: There will be some consolidation for sure. Companies like Bustle are rolling out different vertical and niche content and repositioning them on a broader tech-driven platform, often with a new twist, and companies like Reddit are acquiring startups like Dubsmash to broaden the diversity of its platform. The ability for working remotely will also play a role. Consolidation is part of the evolving landscape and that’s totally OK. There’s nothing bad about it because there will also be a new way to create, connect and engage.

So now that media includes so many different types of content from short videos to podcasts to APIs (e.g., Giphy), what will be the common thread that drives consolidation in 2021?

Jerry Lu: As larger media companies compete for greater content and scale, I do anticipate further digital media consolidation to occur and expect to see new companies begin to form around various niches. With the globalization of consumer markets, the definition of niche has evolved, because even niche consumer segments have significant upside potential. While today’s niches have narrower audiences, these communities are much more impassioned, loyal and engaged and so can be monetized through layers of products and services.

This is one of the many reasons I admire The Chernin Group: Their ability to spot these underserved audiences, as evidenced by their recent investments in companies like Surfline and Hodinkee around the interest groups of surfing and watches, respectively. As these media companies of the future begin to capitalize on this intimate audience relationship, what was traditionally deemed niche will become a valued source of revenue.

Mike Palank: Absolutely. Nearly everything in media today is about getting to scale. It’s the scaled players that survive. Traditional media has been playing catchup to the technology giants for a while now and that trend will only continue. We’re seeing an audio land-grab right now and we would expect that to continue into 2021. There isn’t a lot more consolidation that can happen within the major film and television studios, but like many others, I would expect MGM to be bought by one of the larger studios this year. I fully expect there to be consolidation inside the publishing business with many mass and niche publishers combining to possibly go public this year. With the success and hype around Clubhouse, I would also expect some M&A around this space of conversation-driven social networks.

New companies entering the market need to anticipate the need of the larger players both now and in the future and build into those areas where larger media companies prefer to build versus buy. I feel the area of interactive content, which includes gaming but goes far beyond will be one of those areas.

Pär-Jörgen Pärson: The streaming wars seem to have played out now, with Disney+ becoming a massive player, and Netflix reporting reasonably good results given that they were for the first time truly challenged. We’re also getting to the point where it may be problematic for the giants to consolidate more. The Parler app is probably a representation of the fact that consolidation has gone too far. We are investors in the space through FuboTV, and I also sit on the board of the public listed company, their position in the virtual MVPD space is strong and growing every day. They have acquired two companies on their way to growth. I see more tremendous growth coming from mergers and acquisitions in 2021, as the market expands.

M.G. Siegler: Yes. In particular with all the SPAC activity, it would seem to make it more likely that roll-ups occur. I think if we see some exits that are successful as a result of this, it could inspire others to come back with new ideas for media.

Laurel Touby: Yes. Clearly, the only way they can survive is by being rolled up into larger companies. Hope springs eternal, so I expect many more startups in the space, no matter what.

For example, many journalists who are fed up with suboptimal salaries are starting minimedia companies on Substack. I see some smart aggregator going in and buying those up and combining them.

Do you think SPACs are a good fit for digital media companies? Why or why not?

Daniel Gulati: The managers of these vehicles typically have sharp incentives to acquire. So if you follow the money, media companies that have a brand and revenue scale but have struggled to find the right exit path are going to have more optionality in the next couple of years.

Post-transaction durability is a separate issue, especially for companies with commodity content or platform-dependent revenue streams that tend to be difficult to grow sustainably. If you look more like a consumer subscription company with attractive unit economics, though, the markets will ascribe value. There’s an open question of which companies can hold their own over the longer term.

Alex Gurevich: Potentially. Whether a company goes down a SPAC path or a traditional IPO, they still need to have the metrics and financial infrastructure in place to be a publicly traded company. There is typically a lead time for a pre-IPO company to put all of that infrastructure in place, so I am not sure SPACs change the timelines so much for these companies, in terms of being IPO-ready.

That said, having a quicker, cheaper path to being a public company is a great alternative and I think it will force more digital media companies to evaluate whether being publicly traded is right for them. The current valuations in the public markets certainly make that path very attractive vis a vis M&A. Whether that dynamic holds, is another story.

Matthew Hartman: SPAC’s are a method to take companies public. There are public media companies, including the one you work for [Verizon] — I think that answers your question :) Also note, when a company IPOs, they are forbidden from talking about their vision for the future, projections are backward looking. SPACs do the opposite. So for a digital media company to be a good fit for a SPAC, I think it would need to have high-growth potential that relied on vision for how it would still continue to change and evolve versus how its existing model will be harvested.

Mike Palank: I generally feel like SPACs can be a good fit for digital media companies in that they provide an easier on-ramp to the public markets and allow for public investors to participate in the growth of some amazing companies.

That being said, going public for going public’s sake is not a good thing. A business needs to be ready to go public and if a company is still figuring out how to get to profitability just because it can go public via a SPAC does not mean it should. I feel the SPAC market is a bit overheated and that the best companies to take public were taken public in 2020. I fear that in 2021 some second-tier digital media companies will be taken public that perhaps shouldn’t be and that could lead to a decline in the SPAC market.

Pär-Jörgen Pärson: If you have SPACs founders who know about the media industry, it could be as good as any other SPACs. As for any investment, private or public, it really rests on the premise of who is building the company and if they know the inner workings of the industry. I’m more interested in the wave of IPOs we are going to witness in the next couple of months. In 2020, our portfolio added six new unicorns that I have never seen before in my career. I believe 2021 will see many more companies going public as they have been postponing their plans to go public in 2020 amidst the pandemic.

M.G. Siegler: I think it depends on what the strategy will be for these entities as public companies. While The New York Times, as a pretty straightforward media entity, has been doing great thanks undoubtedly in part to Trump, I think most media plays in the public market will need to be seen as far more diversified from a business perspective.

Laurel Touby: Possibly, but not until they achieve some scale. Remember, even if they use a SPAC to go public, they still have to have an underlying business that is attractive to investors. Typically, media companies won’t achieve that until much later in their trajectories. Most digital-media companies will be sold to aggregators that roll them up in order to achieve economies of scale by decreasing back-end costs and leveraging sales and other assets.

Hans Tung: SPACS are a good fit for digital media. Having a SPAC allows a broader set of investors to talk about the opportunities and share their thinking directly. Having a broader set of investors makes the market healthier overall.

Are there any other thoughts you’d like to share with TechCrunch readers?

Alex Gurevich: 2021 will be very telling on what impact remote work has had on content creation schedules and production quality. Much of the content released in 2020 was likely created in 2019 or Q1 2020. Post-pandemic, how did the traditional media companies adapt to the new reality? Were they able to figure out creative solutions to continue creating? Certain media/content formats, like animation, may not have skipped a beat so we might see a deluge of animation content this year.

Also, I wonder if purely online and distributed media companies will come to the forefront in 2021, since they were more likely to continue coming up with great experiences and content in an all-remote work, whereas traditional companies reliant on in-person filming, might have struggled mightily. For instance, at HitRecord, we were able to create a fully distributed show called “Create Together,” with hundreds of remote collaborators working from home, which was released by YouTube Originals, and in turn the show won an Emmy!

I will be closely watching the quality level of content and what asset types prevail (animation, audio only, documentary style, etc.). It will be fascinating to see how the media industry has adapted.

Matthew Hartman: There is a growing sense now that technology is creating more problems than it’s solving, and I think the events of the last few weeks have really brought that into focus for many people. The same technologies that purport to connect us have been weaponized and used to fragment our society and call truth into question.

Betaworks is looking for investments that will help “Fix The Internet” (we call it Betalab). If you’re building a consumer app that prioritizes privacy and data controls, one that helps measure or combat algorithmic manipulation, or that makes the internet a better place in a way we haven’t thought of yet, we’d love to talk to you. We’re looking for both solutions to today’s problems and new ground-up solutions that will address these problems structurally and form the basis for a new, better, future. We don’t care how early it is as long as you have the ability to build a prototype.

Jana Messerschmidt: I’m very interested in next generation messaging products and think this area is ripe for disruption. We’ve seen a huge spike in new users on privacy-centric apps like Signal and Telegram due to mistrust in Big Tech by consumers, although the consumer feature set still is similar to iMessage, WhatsApp, Messenger, etc.

I’d like to see more innovation in consumer features in messaging enabling things like social commerce, improvements in group/narrowcasting functionality (a more mainstream IFTTT) and better content-creation tools.

Not everyone wants to blast creative content to public or broad audiences on social networks — but everyone expresses themselves digitally, it just is often in private small groups with close friends and family.

Mike Palank: At MaC we’re also investing in companies building the diverse and inclusive future we wish to see. The power of media to influence hearts and minds is a real one, and we are on the lookout for those exceptional diverse founders looking to build companies that not only provide opportunities to all kinds of people, but ones that put a premium on enabling diverse perspectives.

M.G. Siegler: Yes. I’m very interested to hear/see what happens to TechCrunch itself in 2021 under Verizon. Is the HuffPo maneuver the sign of things to come? Are you allowed to print that, Anthony? Just hit publish and ask questions later.

Laurel Touby: I love what you are doing  :)

Hans Tung: Historically, digital media has not been an easy place to generate meaningful exits. Over the last 10 years, TikTok and Snap have been more the exception not the rule. But the rise of video, audio and more contextualized social networks combined with people working remotely and the consumerization in enterprise communication is changing the equation. In addition, new entrants will take a page from Peloton, creating highly engaging experiences around high-quality content. There should be a lot more interesting exits over the next five years.