Vator Reports: Our Christmas special

Since Vator.tv launched on June 7, 2007, our site, our team, and our flagship show – Vator Reports – have certainly evolved.

As we celebrate our six-month anniversary, and the Christmas holidays, we thought it would be a good time to highlight how far we’ve come, or at the least, how much the show and the site have changed. 

While the show’s intent remains the same – covering specific topics around innovation, such as social networking and new media, and highlighting innovators across the community -- we’ve come a long way from our humble beginnings on Peter Thiel’s couch. Yes, that's right. Since we didn't have a studio during the early days, we filmed our first dozen or so episodes in Peter's home. Funny thing is that even though we have a studio today, we still enjoy filming in the field, notably at Geoff Yang's house for six episodes and Heidi Roizen's for two shows.

In this Christmas special, we look back at some of our shows with Peter, my first co-host for Vator Reports. As many of our viewers know, Peter is an investor in Vator and one of the more high-profile venture capitalists and hedge fund managers in the country. We love having Peter as our co-host because his out-of-the-box thinking is always so refreshing. In this special, I've included Peter's outlook on user-generated content and new media, notably, his view on user-generated content and new media, which is very much in sync with an outlook I wrote about years ago. In that article and blog post, I wrote that Google's index of 8 billion pages would be nothing compared to what people would create if they had the tools. 

At Vator, we like to mix things up a bit. So we invited Tony Perkins, the founder of Red Herring and AlwaysOn, to be my co-host for a few episodes. We want to thank Tony for being a great host and a great partner. AlwaysOn has partnered with Vator to be the online vetting tool for its top 100 lists. Check out the latest AO/Vator competitions to find the top 100 by going to our competitions section.

Then you'll note a change in the show's format in the last half dozen episodes as John Shinal, Vator's managing editor and my former colleague and boss at Dow Jones MarketWatch, joined me to provide his insights and a new segment called "Innovation Minute."  

I'm certain that six months from today, our show will evolve as we experiment and try new things. Your feedback and ideas are appreciated.

In the beginning 

From the beginning, Vator.tv has worked hard to identify trends across innovation and present them on Vator Reports, whether it's how new media is turning old media on its head, or how production is now a social endeavor, or how the writers' strike is creating opportunities for independent writers and filmmakers. See those prior shows:

The changing media landscape

The social Web

The Hollywood writers' strike 

We've also worked hard to spot innovators across Vator.tv who've created great pitches that are either informative, an indicator of what's to come, an example of a trend, a great lesson learned, or just simply pure entertainment. In this episode, we highlight uShip, one of the first videos uploaded before Vator was live. UShip demonstrates how creative companies can be in demonstrating their value proposition and culture. Also highlighted is Evil Global Corp's show called Abigail's X-rated Teen Diary, which is a great example of a company using their Vator profile to share their Webisodes. Other companies doing this on Vator, include VCTV and Syncronis.tv. We also highlighted YoYoNation, just because it was a great story about two guys at Merrill Lynch who left to create a social network for YoYo lovers. We also highlighted Simulscribe as a model pitch video. It was fun, informative and simple. And we showcased the Ninja, for making a great case to Donald Trump that his mobile company was worth investing in, and for showing us that CEOs can be quite entertaining. Who'd thought?

Vator's new look 

Now, I've spent all this time on Vator Reports, but the fact of the matter is that much has evolved across Vator.  I'm sure many of our viewers/readers noticed that we overhauled our front page to help highlight our news and competitions. 

On our front page, we also highlighted not only the great pitches being uploaded to Vator, but our growing community of entrepreneurs, service providers, investors and innovators across the world, industries and stages. Take a look at the change. We'd love your feedback. 

There's much to be done at Vator. But we're up for the challenge and we're up for creating what we hope to be the most robust utility and entertainment platform for our users. Speaking of our users, thank you for your great pitches and comments. Without our community, Vator would not exist. I'd also like to thank our investors, as well as Confiz - our Web developers in Pakistan, OuterJoin - our marketing team, Erin and Carl - our producers and videographers, and, of course, the growing Vator team - Roland, Cyril, John, Meliza, Terry Ann, Cosme, Kristin, Ricci and Tifani. And, thanks to those just merely watching. 

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. 

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