Great content isn’t enough anymore. Publishers need sophisticated technology to distribute that content, optimize the mobile experience and monetize their audience.
But building technology from scratch like Vox, Business Insider and BuzzFeed have done is expensive and time-consuming. To that end, companies like RebelMouse, DWNLD and now Quintype are cropping up to meet that need.
Quintype offers a service-oriented tech solution that spans content management, distribution and monetization. Upstart publishers use it in exchange for equity. That’s a slightly different model than RebelMouse, which operates on a traditional SaaS model, and DWNLD, which uses a freemium model as well as revenue sharing.
For Motherly, equity in exchange for technology was an attractive proposition. The just-launched mobile-first publication for educated millennial mothers and mothers-to-be needed technology in order to personalize content based around each life stage. Plus, Motherly wants to launch an app, an expensive outlay Quintype would assume as part of its technology offering.
“We decided to go to Quintype as an investor so [we have] a deep partner who can execute our vision. We have greater potential by partnering with them,” said Jill Koziol, CEO and co-founder of Motherly.
Amit Rathore, CEO and co-founder of Quintype, said the company will take anywhere from 5% to 25% equity in a company in exchange for the tech, which it values at $300,000. The year-old company raised a $3.25 million Series A in October around this business model, which it just put into action.
Rathore puts Quintype’s technology assets in three buckets: content, audience and monetization.
Content covers how a site looks, like Motherly’s clean mobile-centered design, as well as its personalization engine that helps customize a user’s experience. Audience covers how to customize content for different distribution platforms. Monetization is the advertising piece, which focuses on native advertising and commerce, not display banners.
“Most of our [publishing] competitors are known for their distracting ads,” Koziol said. “We don’t want to take this beautiful experience away, so we will not be using traditional ads.
The data collected to personalize a mother’s reading experience will be leveraged to “figure out ads and commerce,” with Koziol envisioning “buy” buttons for strollers and native ads or sponsorships from companies who fit Motherly’s mission, like The Honest Company.
Quintype also helps upstart publishers monetize because it pools its clients’ audience, creating enough scale to interest demand partners.
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The same philosophy applies to Quintype’s product road map. When one of its publishers was invited to Facebook Instant Articles, Quintype built the technology to support all Quintype publishers, giving everyone else the same head start.
Quintype’s Rathore came from an ecommerce background, where the biggest players build their own technology, like Amazon and eBay, and the rest license ecommerce platforms from large players.
“In today’s world you need a strong tech advantage to succeed, but if you’re not eBay or Amazon you should not be building your own, but focusing on your core business,” Rathore said. “It’s the same for media.”
What might be one of the most unique parts of Motherly – content tailored to a mother’s style and interests, as well as where she is in her life – comes as part of the package in Quintype, freeing Koziol to focus on business development, growth and content. She wants growth to exceed 50% month over month in order for her to launch a pay-for-premium-content subscription model and get corporate subscriptions to the content.
Advertising will be just one revenue stream, complemented by subscriptions and commerce, which Motherly bets will be the most successful way to build a publishing company in today’s environment.
