Ooyala

Brand Your Video - Watermark Today!

2008-07-10T00:00:00

Do you want to include your logo or signature within the video so others know you are providing the content? Do you want audiences to remember your name? Today, we are introducing Watermarks to our player customization offering! This feature enables content owners to brand their content using an uploaded image or logo -- a.k.a., a watermark. You have the flexibility regarding the placement and transparency of the watermark. You will find this feature within Backlot under the "Account Tab." For your convenience, we have also included the recommended size and format to ensure the optimal viewing experience. Get started and Watermark your video today! As always, if you have any questions, please email us at support@ooyala.com.

My Fair Lady

2008-07-04T00:00:00

In 1964, Henry Higgins, a professor of phonetics, transformed an unrefined young woman, Eliza Doolittle, into a lady that was presentable in high society. At Ooyala we have been working hard to follow in the footsteps of the professor, as we transform our website into one that is more comprehensive, user friendly and informative.

Today we are happy to launch our new website! As you navigate through the site, you will find information about Backlot features, our customers, and Ooyala itself. Additionally, there is information regarding our new service packages, providing insight into how Ooyala can best complement any business model. Finally, to ensure ease of use, we have augmented our support center, providing detailed information on how to best use Backlot. Check back often for updates.

We hope that you will stay tuned as we continue to revolutionize the online video industry.

Schedule When Your Videos Go on the Air

2008-06-28T00:00:00

Want to schedule a video to air only after it shows on TV? Interested in making a video available starting tomorrow night at 7pm? Our newly added flight time feature enables you to control when a video is available for viewing. Simply change the syndication options for the video in Backlot's Darkroom by specifying a start time and an optional end time for a video. Users who access the video before it's available will see a countdown over the video's preview image. If you have any questions or comments email us at support@ooyala.com.

Interactive Video Comes to Ooyala

2008-06-17T00:00:00

Do you like that Dolce Gabbana bag you saw on Sex and the City? Curious about the stats on your favorite baseball player? Using Ooyala's patented Computer Vision technology, users can now click and interact with objects of interest within the Ooyala Player. This feature rich technology exposes information about the clicked object such as a detailed description of the object or hyperlinks to e-commerce sites. During our beta release, only select backlot accounts will be enabled with our Computer Vision technology. If you are interested in enabling your account please email: ivideo@ooyala.com.

Ad Server Integration Launch!

2008-06-11T00:00:00

We have recently integrated several third-party ad servers with Backlot and our Player, enabling the use of your existing technology and sales force with Ooyala. The first group of servers ready for trial includes DoubleClick, LightningCast, and Google AdSense for Video. If you are currently using one of these systems and would like to explore opportunities available for delivering and monetizing your video, please contact us via ads@ooyala.com.

Player Branding

2008-06-04T00:00:00

Here at Ooyala, we call it our player, and because you're using it as an integral part of your business, you probably know it as your player. Now the latest version of Backlot will let you quickly and easily personalize and distinguish the player as your own.

The Player Branding section of Backlot is now enhanced with greater options. You can change colors and accents, customize your sharing links, and decide what buttons to place on the control bar. It's easy--just a few clicks and you're done. You can even make multiple players to customize each of your different sites, syndication groups or projects. The live-preview feature lets you see the changes as you make them. You aren't committed to anything - you can change and change and then change it yet again, until you are satisfied.

We know customizing the video experience is important and that's why we continue to expand the options and flexibility of the Player API. Consider this the first set of many options on the way. With so many unique partners, everyone can make important player customizations from Backlot. Send us your feedback and let us know what you think should come next. After all, it is your player.

Ad Serving Now Includes In-Stream Ads

2008-06-02T00:00:00

We have enhanced our Video Ad Serving Beta by adding the option to place an ad at any point in a video stream. You can test this feature by selecting "Add at Current Time" from the Add Ad options, then dragging the INSTREAM spot along the Ad Track to place it in the video. Feel free to experiment with multiple placements and configurations. We have a number of additional advertising features that will be added in the near future including support for images, Flash-based overlays, and increased ad management capabilities. Let us know if you have any questions or comments at support@ooyala.com.

Parlez-Vous Français? Español? English? ...

2008-04-28T00:00:00

Se dice que en el mundo existen más de 6.800 idiomas y aunque para mucha gente el inglés sirve como un lenguaje universal la verdad es que la mayor parte del mundo no lo habla. Por esta razón hemos elegido traducir nuestra pantalla de video a varios lenguajes. De esta manera un televidente en la Argentina puede entender la frase “Pantalla Entera” tan fácil como un Australiano entiende “Full Screen” y un Frances entiende “Plein Ecran.” Sin embargo, es interesante notar que dentro del mundo audiovisual existen símbolos, como el triangulo acostado que denomina “Activar,” que se entienden en cualquier lengua. Quizás sea por la popularidad del betamax o el tocadiscos...pero bueno, de todos modos lo que importa es que ahora tu audiencia podrá interactuar con tus videos en su lenguaje natal.

  Por ahora hemos traducido la pantalla al español, italiano, francés, ruso y chino. Si quieres ayudarnos con otros idiomas por favor mándanos un correo a info@ooyala.com.

It is said there are over 6,800 languages worldwide and even though many people think of English as a universal language, the truth is that the majority of the world does not speak it. For this reason we have opted to translate our video player to various languages. This way, a viewer in Argentina can understand the phrase “Pantalla Completa” as easily as an Australian understands “Full Screen” and a Francophone understands “Plein Ecran.” However, it is interesting to note that within the audiovisual world there are symbols, such as the sideways triangle that denotes “Play,” that are globally understood. Perhaps it’s because of the popularity of the Betamax or the record player... Well, in any case, what matters is that now your audience can interact with your videos in their native language.

So far we have translated the player to Spanish, Italian, French, Russian and Chinese. If you would like to help us with other languages, please send us an email at info@ooyala.com.

"The Relay" - An Unforgettable Adventure

2008-04-23T00:00:00

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, an ADVENTURE is "an exciting and/or remarkable experience." Since joining Ooyala about a month ago, life has been nothing shy of an adventure. This past weekend was no exception. Under the Ooyala flag - I participated in an event that was both exciting and remarkable. Accompanied by ten incredible runners and two enthusiastic drivers, we completed "The Relay," a 199 mile race from Calistoga to Santa Cruz for the benefit of Organ Donation. We not only completed the relay, we placed 10th out of 250 teams!!

When first recruiting runners for the team, our co-founders used two words to describe "The Relay" - "Fun" and "Unforgettable". Unforgettable – maybe… But I found it difficult to believe that running for 24+ hours (regardless of the weather) and sleeping (or trying to) in a van with 6 other people could be considered fun. Not knowing what to expect, I felt a combination of anxiety and nervousness as we piled into the vans and headed to Calistoga. All fears were washed away by the excitement of seeing our first runner, Bel, take the lead and disappear around the corner.

The next 24+ hours followed the pattern of running, cheering, resting, and then running again. The encouragement, motivation, and support (and of course the hilarious jokes, notable one liners, random conversations, and image of our very own video guru running up highway nine to get the perfect shot) provided by the team members made this a true team-building event! Not only was the experience fun and unforgettable - it was amazing!

I was the final runner for team Ooyala. And for me, the best moment was right at the final stretch… As I rounded the corner and headed toward the finish line in Santa Cruz, my team – Team Ooyala – was there waiting for me. We merged onto the course for the final couple steps, enabling us to cross the finish line together. It was the perfect end to an unforgettable adventure. Can't wait for the next one!

AWSome Meetup

2008-04-18T00:00:00

It's no secret we use Amazon Web Services extensively to power our architecture. So we jumped at the chance to host the AWSome user group's latest meetup at our brand new headquarters in Mountain View, CA.

The focus was on SimpleDB, Amazon's scalable database service. Three presenters — Sebastian Stadil, Alex Tolley, and our very own Sean Knapp — gave an introduction to the service, and spoke of its relative merits, tradeoffs, and limitations. There was pizza, snacks, bevy's, and no shortage of good technical discussions.

I'd like to thank all 40 or so attendees for putting up with our new-office quirks, and making this meetup a success!

Movin' on Up!

2008-04-13T00:00:00

A year ago, I started hearing the colorful stories about Ooyala's first office space. The server room doubled as sleeping quarters, the tiny sink bubbled over with dishes, and every available surface was covered with tons of snacks containing more sugar and caffeine than I care to mention. Despite all the detail, nothing could have prepared me for the 700 sq feet that made up Ooyala's first office space. Six months later, Ooyala moved into 1300 sq feet, giving us more elbow room. Amazingly, six months later, we were oozing out of the seams, and it was time -- once again -- to move.

When you think about a move, you don't appreciate the various details involved behind the scenes.The process wasn't as simple as going to sleep in one office and waking up in the next, First, you start with the obvious -- finding the space. You feel a bit like Goldilocks... "This one's too big. This one's too small. This one's too expensive. And, that one is just plain ugly." But the fun certainly does not end with finding the right office space. Did you know that new offices don't come fully furnished, carpeted, painted and -- in a word -- done? There were chairs to be bought and returned (and bought and returned), arguments to be won with the deliverymen (over whether the volume of the fridge was in fact greater than that of the elevator), lessons to be learned (like "flexible delivery" is code for "provide your own fork lift and driver"), questions that cropped up (like... "What do you mean this isn't drawn to scale!?!" Lastly, there was the shock and realization that came with finding picnic tables dropped off at the door to be assembled like tinker toys by ... us.

At the end of the day, good humor and hard work took the edge off the frustration - and we had a great time settling in - and reflecting on all that this past year did bring. We now look to upcoming adventures and the excitement that will surely follow.

Yes, the food is better and the sink is bigger, but that fun, quirky spirit that started it all --- that remains the same.

Beta Launches of Ads and The Exchange

2008-03-23T00:00:00

Ooyala is always happy to showcase Beta features in Backlot to provide a view into our plans past what emails or slides may provide. To this end we have recently introduced two new pieces of functionality for users to explore: The Exchange and Video Ads. In the next few weeks the Exchange will be opened for providers to make content available as part of existing syndication controls. See the Exchange portion of the Backlot FAQ for more information. To launch our monetization efforts, we have added basic video pre and post-roll ad functionality on a per-video basis. You can trial this functionality under the ADS subtab for any video in your account. For the beta period we are waving all ad serving costs, so feel free to try different things and feel free to contact ads@ooyala.com if you have any questions or comments.

New Player JavaScript API

2008-01-27T00:00:00

As promised, we now offer a JavaScript API for the Ooyala player. Similar to the ActionScript API, this allows Backlot users to tightly integrate the Ooyala player into the rest of their website. Below I've put together a fun little demo using the new JS API and the video from our team's Bocce Ball offsite.

Guess Who

Correct: 0 Incorrect: 0 Remaining: 0

$8.5mm from Sierra Ventures and Private Investors

2008-01-21T00:00:00

Earlier this month, we closed our Series B round of funding with Sierra Ventures and our initial group of angel investors. We are excited to welcome Mark Fernandes - Managing Director at Sierra - to our Board. Keep an eye out, as we move forward with great things in the coming weeks and months.

Live from NYC - it's Ooyala!

2008-01-20T00:00:00

They say if you can make it in NYC, you can make it anywhere. Last week, we opened our NYC office near 48th and 8th. We're very excited to have a local presence in the big apple. We're looking for a handful of BD folks to staff up this office, so if you want to join us in building out our East Coast team, drop us a line at careers@ooyala.com.

New Player Actionscript API

2008-01-20T00:00:00

Many have expressed a desire to integrate Ooyala within their personal applications. We agreed that giving Backlot this flexibility was a great idea. So... starting today, Backlot users may now embed and directly control the Ooyala player from inside their own Flash applications. This runs the gamut from triggering external events based on video play time to completely reskinning the player. The possibilities are limitless. We look forward to seeing what you come up with.

Also, keep an eye out for our JavaScript API for tighter integration with the rest of your web pages.

New Syndication Controls

2008-01-17T00:00:00

Ooyala has recently enhanced our syndication control options to include geographic restrictions on videos and channels. We have also simplified the Backlot interface to allow the creation of Syndication Groups under the Account tab Syndication Controls area. These groups allow content restriction by combinations of inclusion or exclusion of both domain names and country codes and can be applied on a per-video or per-channel basis. Existing domain restrictions have been automatically migrated to the new group format. Please contact Ooyala Support at support@ooyala.com if you have any questions or concerns.

Play Ball!

2008-01-15T00:00:00

To kick off the new year, we invited some friends and family for some Bocce fun. Have you ever? Bocce ball is a little like bowling and a little like playing pool. It is easy to learn and fun. Spread across two lanes at Campo di Bocce in Los Gatos, our team and extended family got to try it out. To see some bocce play in action, check out the video highlights.

Latest Backlot Notes

2007-12-18T00:00:00

The latest Backlot release includes support for Adobe AIR Beta 3, new Account functionality, and a number of enhancements and bug fixes. Clicking the "Install Now" badge on the Backlot Download page will install the latest releases of Adobe Flash Player, Adobe AIR, and Backlot. The latest player supports H.264, which we will be fully integrated in to Backlot by mid-January. For those of you wondering when Adobe will release AIR as a product, AIR Beta 3 is the final preview before AIR GA which is projected for release sometime in January.

We are beginning to expand the options and controls available in our player, API, and with RSS feeds. In this release, you will find the initial offering of configuration options under the Account tab. There are now five areas under the tab, of which API and Player Branding introduce new controls. Among the list of enhancements is the presence of upload time and date in the content grid, the removal of the pointer while viewing a video in full-screen mode, and the ability to select multiple videos in the channel grid.

Early in the new year, we plan to introduce a variety of new functionality including full H.264 support in the player and Backlot, ad serving capabilities, more granular syndication controls with geographic restriction on viewers, and Omniture integration. Keep visiting our blog for updates as Backlot progresses. Happy Holidays from Ooyala!

Ooyala Wins AWS Start-Up Challenge

2007-12-08T00:00:00

It's official! After a long day of presenting to the AWS Judges Panel, Amazon announced Ooyala as the winner of the AWS Start-Up Challenge.

What a day it was. Among the highlights was meeting all of the competitors and learning the extent to which AWS has enabled other companies - spanning a gamut of industries - to rapidly innovate and scale.

A big thank you to the AWS team for hosting such a great event and of course for providing such a phenomenal set of services with which to build our platform.

AWS Start-Up Challenge

2007-11-22T00:00:00

Since learning about Amazon Web Services nearly a year ago, I am continually impressed and excited by the rate of innovation that AWS enables. Upon founding Ooyala, I quickly migrated from sideline fan to enthusiastic participant -- since day one Ooyala was designed to leverage the capabilities of AWS.

You can imagine how flattered and pleased I was when Ooyala was selected as one of seven finalists in the AWS Start-Up Challenge, a competition in search of "the next hot start-up that is leveraging AWS to build its infrastructure and business."

Later this month Amazon will post videos from each of the finalists at aws.amazon.com/startupchallenge where the public can vote for its favorite contestant. We think we've found yet another excellent use for Mechanical Turk!

Update: On the AWS Start-Up Challenge site you can now view videos for each of the finalists as well as vote for your favorite competitor.

Stream Media West 2007

2007-11-12T00:00:00

I attended Streaming Media West 2007 last week. Our very own Sean Knapp participated on a panel entitled "Evaluating and Choosing the Right Methods of Video Delivery." There were five panelists: Tejpaul Bhatia (moderator), MediaMerx; Bob Leverone, Dow Jones Online; Evan Berg, Brightcove; and David Stubenvoll, Wowza Media. Each gave his perspective and preference on CDNs, P2P, streaming, and progressive download for video. Each offered insight on what is available, as well as and how to choose a method when looking for a video serving solution. Here's a clip of the panel discussion. It's almost as good as the real thing.

Team Ooyala

2007-09-28T00:00:00

Nothing says "team" quite like lining up with your coworkers - in a field with 5,000 other runners - for a lively and windy 3.5 mile run around Crissy Field in San Francisco. With the Golden Gate Bridge in the background - and hurricane-like winds in the foreground - it was a great day for a run. We at Ooyala did just that on Wednesday of last week, when every member of the Ooyala team found him or herself at the 23rd Annual JP Morgan Corporate Chase Challenge.

Five months ago we signed up to run Chase. As each employee came aboard, we repeatedly encouraged participation and soon every member of the team was either running or cheering. In the end, we pulled together to form a mighty and fearless contingent of 18 runners. Of particular note was recent recruit Alex H., who - 10 minutes into his first day - found out that he'd be racing 3.5 miles two days later! He was a great sport as he joined us on the field. Ooyala had a fine showing, and we are proud of all of our runners.

While we may not have won the entire thing (next year!), our men's team placed in the top three and we had a number of great individual performances. You can find team results here and individual results here.

Now, our racing days are by no means over. Tomorrow we'll be traveling into the heart of Palo Alto for a Moonlit 5K run. In the coming weeks, we'll no doubt keep up with the racing - or biking - or any number of activities. So, don't be surprised if you see the colorful Ooyala dots flying down the road!

Ice Cream Strategy

2007-09-23T00:00:00

Since we are continuing to hire top engineering talent, we figured career fairs were a great place to start. Who knew they were a) expensive and b) sometimes such popular events, that even if you registered by the deadline, there was still a very good chance of being waitlisted.

When the Stanford School of Engineering's Fall Alumni Career Fair was held last Tuesday at the Computer History Museum, we couldn't resist stopping by to meet and greet the folks in attendance. Here at Ooyala, we don't just say hello by handing out a branded pencil or pad of paper, we do it the *old-fashioned* way. We incorporate good taste and fun into the activity. On Tuesday, we pulled up in an ice cream truck and handed out fudge pops, big sticks, Neapolitan bars, and all the treats Mom promised would ruin your appetite. As we doled out the ice cream, we chatted, accepted resumes, and watched as people smiled with nostalgic delight.

We're trying it again, soon... from the inside this next time. Look for us on October 9th at the school-wide Stanford Career Fair. We'll be there meeting folks and telling them about Ooyala. Can't tell you what the treat will be on that day, but I will promise you one thing; it will make your mother equally unhappy. That's right - no Brussels sprouts, promise.

Mmmmm. Lunch 2.0.

2007-09-21T00:00:00

Less than 48 hours after speaking at a forum focused on companies using Amazon Web Services, the Ooyala team accepted an invitation to present at Lunch 2.0 @ Adobe, held in San Francisco. We talked about how we've been using Adobe's Flash, Flex, and AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) in our aggressive product development cycles. Though they did have pizza, it was more of an intellectual lunch where creative minds networked and explored some of the most recent technologies built with Adobe products.

The minutes flew by much faster than expected as we discussed Ooyala Backlot, our video content management system, as well as other products in development. Thanks to the mid-lunch presentation by our hosts, we found a few minutes to roam the hallways and learn about other projects also leveraging Adobe technologies. We even managed to grab a slice of pizza as we returned to our table only to find another crowd had formed... we apologize for talking with our mouths full.

This was a great opportunity to not only inform the community about what we are doing here at Ooyala, but meet a number of talented engineers (enter plug here: "We're hiring!") and a number of potential partners looking for online video solutions. All in all, it was an extremely productive afternoon, and we look forward to more "lunches" in the future.

PS - Thank you to the security guard who patiently waited well into "dinner time" as we continued to field questions from interested participants.

Enabling Innovation

2007-09-15T00:00:00

This week the Start-Up Project – Silicon Valley hosted a forum in which I joined the panel of speakers and shared my experiences using Amazon Web Services. AWS is a suite of web services that provides the fundamental building blocks to launch quickly and scale effortlessly. Here at Ooyala, we leverage AWS technologies including Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), Simple Storage Service (S3), Simple Queue Service (SQS) and a handful of others.

I have been asked why Ooyala bothers to build on top of an infrastructure not its own. For our team, scalable and reliable infrastructure is merely an enabler, and our efforts are better spent executing on the core components of our vision.

If you are interested in hearing more, please tune in to the footage from my presentation... processing and hosting powered by EC2, S3 and SQS.

I'll take that corner...

2007-09-12T00:00:00

Combine a 30.5" x 52" x 78" 550 pound fridge and a narrow stairwell and you find yourself with a humbling proposition. Having six engineers outside trying to decide if it is mathematically possible to get a fridge that could fit three emperor penguins up the stairwell, is hysterical.

This all came about with the move last week from our old office to a new - and significantly larger - office. In the old office, it was becoming increasingly obvious that 1200 square feet of space was not enough to house our 14 engineers, two finance folks and one marketing person.

There were a lot of things to move - but movers be damned - we decided to move ourselves. No one on the team ever dreamt that when they signed up to work at Ooyala, that the term "many hats" would encompass the schlepping of desks, plumbing, carpentry, interior design and painting. But the team and its extended family dove in to help. Seeing everybody pitch in makes one appreciate the process of building and shaping something new. From my experience, moving meant boxing up my things and having them arrive magically at my desk the following day. This time we were all invested in the move. We chose the decor, we argued about the strategic placement of the Foosball table and drinks fridge and decided that a pink couch was not a fashion faux-pas.

For now, I leave you with a short video of the move.

Oh - and about that fridge. After we realized that we didn't have enough shoelaces to rig a proper pulley system, we asked a handful of professional movers who were in the complex to give us a hand. Sometimes brute force is the fastest means to an end. And yes - we now have enough fridge space to keep the team properly caffeinated.

Artist on Board

2007-08-24T00:00:00

Ooyala. Huh? When I was first introduced to the company a month ago, my reaction was possibly not unlike your own. A unique name – definitely. And once I learned what these guys were setting up shop to do... "unique" didn't even begin to scratch the surface. Ah, yes... an introduction. My name is Kyle, I'm a designer, and I'm the latest addition to the Ooyala team.

There have been some important changes lately – in the look-and-feel category. A week ago we rolled out a new logo. The evolution of the logo - and more importantly - the brand, is really an important step for us as a company.

Keep watching, as in the coming weeks we'll bring more changes to Backlot, our video management system, as well as to our website. I'm excited – and I hope you'll like what we're planning.

Before I sign off, let me finish by telling you my initial visit to Ooyala was great. They invited me to a team dinner at Mango Carribean in Palo Alto and we cruised down University Avenue. It was a lot of fun and it got me excited to get to know everyone. I'm thrilled to be a part of something so groundbreaking - and something that involves such a talented, fun group of people.

Ooyala Backlot Preview

2007-07-25T00:00:00

Today we are announcing the debut of Ooyala Backlot. It's the application I've been building since arriving at Ooyala in early June. As you might guess, I'm quite attached to it, so I hope you like it. Backlot is a smart, fast and intuitive way to manage, edit, tag, upload and share your videos online. I designed this application so our content owners could easily drag and drop files into the system. No instruction necessary! You can also bulk upload videos. My favorite feature is the capability to watch video while it is being processed. Check out the video above. Alexa, one of my coworkers, walks you through the application.

Welcome to Ooyala EDU

2007-07-15T00:00:00

Engaging in intelligent dialogue is very important. We sometimes get so focused on the task at hand - especially when trying to build a company - that we lose focus of the bigger picture. In order to prevent tunnel vision, we've started to invite our friends from academia to participate in the Ooyala speaker series.

Last week Professor Thrasos Pappas from Northwestern University presented his recent research in adaptive image segmentation and object tracking. We listened, questioned and debated a bit. It was an invigorating discussion.

The material was fascinating, and below you can find an excerpt of the talk. If you are interested in seeing the whole thing, please send us your resume; we are always looking for like-minded engineers looking to explore new and innovative topics.

What is it? How do you say it? Oo-what?

2007-06-17T00:00:00

"Ooyala" (ū·yä·lä')

An expression of wild exuberance.
A new tropical-flavored Jelly Belly.
Groove moves hipper than Hyphy.

Try again :-)

We infiltrated the diploma line at Stanford to ask the soon-to-be grads what the word might mean. Their responses blew us away and, at times, made us laugh so hard we could barely keep filming!

Of course, no one nailed down the exact meaning, but one thing did become very clear: "Ooyala" is one of those words, which once said, is never forgotten.

So, if you have a little rhythm - and a touch of style - you'll see that the word can take on a life of its own! Check out the video above to see for yourself.

Kool-aid never goes bad

2007-05-29T00:00:00

We're grateful about the early press we received from the Silicon Valley rags, but figured we would write to clarify a couple of points. Some of our friendly neighborhood bloggers recently mentioned that we were upset with our former employer - the Goog. That couldn't be further from the truth. We feel very fortunate to have been part of such a great force of change -- and now with Ooyala, we hope to create our own magic. We're still making Kool-aid, the only difference is that the flavor is now Ooyala.

Recruiting Trip: Southern California

2007-05-27T00:00:00

The Silicon Valley has been my home for nearly ten years. Between Stanford and Google, I have spent those years basking in ingenuity and intellectual curiosity. While expanding the ooyala team, I've naturally drawn from the abundant talent pool found locally. When resume after resume came in from sunny Southern California, however, it gave rise to a need to talk to - and interview - this obviously brilliant group whose attention we had attracted. Therefore, two of us from the ooyala team will be heading south the weekend of June 2nd to interview engineers who share our passion for technology and video. If you are interested in talking to us, please send your resumé to careers@ooyala.com, and we will see you on the 2nd. Looking forward to it!

Greetings from Ooyaland

2007-05-07T00:00:00

Five weeks ago, a group of us left Google.

Gone are the days of free gourmet food. On-site oil changes, we'll miss you.

We were treated well. We worked with many inspiring individuals. We learned a lot.

But it was time to cut the cord.

Ooyala is our own creation and it is quite a wild baby! As new parents, we've been busy... pulling all-nighters, chugging Guru, assembling furniture, and having meetings with PDPs (People with Deep Pockets). What else? Hiring, hiring, hiring. (engineers)

Things are moving FAST. In a little over a month, we lured over "Alex," set up camp in our office, and secured some funding, (phew!). Next week, we're launching our closed alpha.

Closed Alpha for what--say you?

Please forgive us, but we've got to keep it quiet for now. Our open beta is still a couple of months away and we'd love it if you'd stay in touch. Check back for updates in this space.

If you're interested in becoming part of the Ooyala experience, send us your resumé.