Uscreen is helping e-learning startups do video right

Call it the “Netflix for your business.”
Uscreen is a D.C.-based startup that offers customizable video-streaming services for small and large businesses across the country.
Originally, the startup’s business model revolved around working with companies that were selling DVDs, but as streaming took over the internet, Uscreen President Pejman Taei realized that the company needed to change course. At the time, Taei was working with the founder of a swimming school, Total Immersion Academy, who wanted to be able to offer his consumers instructional videos via subscription.

“He said, ‘I want to package this into a subscription for $49 a month,’ and then a lightbulb went off,” said Taei. “We took the idea further by allowing people to launch their own Netflix with any kind of content.”
As of now, about 60 percent of Uscreen’s 300 partner companies are in the e-learning industry. The other 40 percent are entertainment or film companies.
Some of Uscreen’s major customers include Tawzer Dog — a company that streams educational videos for dog training — and Films of Norway, which sells films to Norwegian immigrants in the U.S.
“One thing that all of these companies do have in common is that 80 percent want to sell subscriptions and monetize on a monthly or yearly basis,” said Taei.
That’s where Uscreen comes in.
The company offers subscription streaming, but it also provides customers with detailed analytics on popular videos and the location of viewers.
In March 2016 Uscreen registered 1 million monthly views, according to Taei, who attended the University of Maryland. He hopes to bring live-streaming to the platform in the coming months.
“Someone might want to teach something on a webinar through a live-stream so we are adding a component [like that],” said Taei, who says about 20 percent of his customers have already requested this feature.