Video news operation? Creative services agency? AlleyWire is both

AlleyWire is a new media company with a built-in creative agency that’s covering the New York City innovation economy through video. We visited their Innovators’ Gala in March. AlleyWire operates both out of WeWork in Manhattan and the MINY Media Center in Dumbo.

The company has made videos about 250-plus New York City companies, according to its website. Founder and CEO Neil St. Clair told Technical.ly that AlleyWire plans to expand to Boston, D.C. and Philadelphia by the end of the summer. The team is working to expand to London by the end of the year.

A revenue source for the company is its work as AW Creative Services, a division that brings its editorial technique to content marketing, St. Clair told us. This is a model that will be familiar to those who follow the workings of Williamsburg media giant, VICE Media.

However, St. Clair explained that the vision is to take this model much further.

He described AlleyWire’s model as a “unique space, between content marketing and editorial distribution.” Going forward, the company is looking to build custom campaigns with brands and businesses that will engage in a conversation with their clients, partners and users over time. This content will appear as sponsored content on the existing AlleyWire platform.

By building in-house expertise around certain business verticals (starting with innovation and potentially moving into spaces like commercial real estate or finance), AlleyWire believes it can provide the best content in each vertical it enters. Its consumer-facing editorial videos then function as lead generation for more ongoing client work. In this way, it’s entering a space not unlike that of NewsCred.

Currently, AlleyWire’s revenue comes primarily from its creative services and sponsors, who join with AlleyWire as lead generation themselves, to reach the companies the site is covering, St. Clair explained.

In a recent video, AlleyWire profiled a veteran angel investor, Brian Cohen, who describes growing up in Brooklyn as a motivation to go into entrepreneurship.

In another video, AlleyWire profiled Technical.ly via our State of Startups event at the Dumbo Startup Lab.

AlleyWire has approximately 40 freelance editors, reporters and other freelance staff who make its videos, St. Clair says. The company has been bootstrapped thus far, though St. Clair explained it is now fundraising to build out its back-end as the company moves to strengthen its business model. A Kickstarter campaign for a special project by the company, “100 Startups in 100 Days” was unsuccessful.