philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

Machinima’s new CEO digs in, lays out a plan to return the MCN to its former glory

With only one full day under his belt as Machinima’s new CEO, Chat Gutstein has a plan. The former COO of the Ovation cable network spent yesterday in meetings with his new team, mostly listening, he says, but also laying out a four-part playbook meant to allow the online video network to rebound from recent troubles and fulfill its enormous promise....

I. People – “We need to retain and attract an A-team throughout organization and focus on building a culture of excellence and execution,” Gutstein says. While the company is at its smallest size in over a year at just 116 employees, the plan is for near-term growth. “The days of rifts at Machinima are over,” he adds. “We’re not going to cut our way to growth. We have plenty of money in the bank to fulfill the mission we have.”

II. Profitable Growth – “We’re going to be really laser-focused on getting the company to a place where we have our hands on the levers of how to operate a business – where we know that should we ever want to pull back and be profitable on an overall business level, we have the ability to do that,” Gutstein says. “The thing that does is give us the confidence to make big bets going forward.”

III. Product – “This is an all-encompassing commitment to creating excellent content – both original and with our partners – to developing the kind of technology tools that we need internally to run our business, and to building out additional platforms such as our owned, branded platform strategy,” Gutstein says. He adds that it’s easy to get distracted and invested in too many things at once when confronted by massive opportunity, something that Machinima will have to balance with the above ambitious product roadmap.

IV. Diversification – “Finally we will diversify our traffic and revenue sources,” Gutstein says. “Today, the overwhelming majority of our traffic still comes from YouTube and our revenue from advertising. But I think you’ll see that change in both areas going forward.” The new Machinima CEO also promises to diversify beyond its focus on gaming to address the massive fanboy audience, noting that the company’s new relationship with Warner Brothers will be massively valuable in this regard.

The consensus view of the MCN model got a major boost in March when Disney acquired Maker Studios, Machinima’s cross-town rival, in a deal that could ultimately be worth up to $950 million. The belief is, that if Maker could attract this sort of valuation, than Machinima, Fullscreen, and the other category leaders have a real possibility of making good on their early promise and hefty valuations.

There was a time 24 months ago when Machinima and Maker Studios were two of the brightest stars in the LA startup ecosystem, a rapidly growing community with YouTube and content as one of its key centers of gravity. That the gamer-focused company would today be fighting simply to find its footing, let alone to prove that it can turn that early excitement into realized value, remains a shock. With fresh blood and a rejuvenated sense of fight in the CEO suite, the company has reason for optimism.

See the full story here: http://pando.com/2014/04/01/machinimas-new-ceo-digs-in-lays-out-a-plan-to-return-the-mcn-to-its-former-glory/?curator=MediaREDEF