Guide (software company)

Guide

Industry| Software
Founded| Miami, Florida (2012 (2012))
Founder| Freddie A. Laker

Key people

| Freddie A. Laker, CEO
Leslie Bradshaw, COO

Guide was a US technology startup company developing a newsreader app that translates text from online news sources, blogs and social media streams into streaming audio and video. The company's apps include animal character readers.[1] The company was founded in 2012 by chief executive officer Freddie A. Laker, and privately launched its mobile app in alpha in February 2013.

The company closed in 2014.[citation needed]

## Guide app

Guide is a visual newsreader app for personal computers, mobile devices and Smart TV,[2][3] which uses text-to-speech and avatar technologies to turn text-based online news, blogs and social media updates into video content.[4][5][6] These technologies allow Guide to turn articles into news program-style episodes, incorporating video or images from the original source, while the text content of the article or blog post is read aloud by a virtual news anchor.[7] The app creates a "channel" for each site or news source, within which individual blog posts or news articles are separate episodes.[8]

Guide allows users to choose from three different virtual news anchors in the base application,[9][10] and the company has stated it will offer additional avatars and newsroom backgrounds for purchase.[6][8] An alpha version of the app, for iPad only,[2] was privately released on February 8, 2013.[4]

Screenshot showing the Guide app's user interface

## Background

Freddie Laker, former vice president of strategy at Sapient Nitro and founder of digital agency iChameleon Group,[6][2] developed the idea for Guide in 2011 after he noticed the rising trend in Smart TVs and Smart TV content at that year's CES.[8] He observed that the apps for Smart TV did not provide content in a TV-friendly format and decided to create an app that would provide a "TV experience".[11] In January 2013, Laker was joined at the company by chief operating officer Leslie Bradshaw.[12] The company is based in Miami, Florida, and has seven employees as of February 2013[update].[8][13]

Guide closed its seed funding round in February 2013. It raised $1 million from investors including Sapient, the Knight Foundation, MTV founder Bob Pittman, founding Google team member Steve Schimmel, and actor Omar Epps.[3][4] The company stated that the seed money will be used to focus on further development of the Guide app and pursuing patents for its technology.[3][6] In February 2013, Guide was one of 65 companies out of 500 applicants selected to demonstrate its app in the annual South by Southwest (SXSW) Accelerator in Austin.[10][14]

## References

1. ↑ "Man scores $1.5 million with kitten that can read to you | Power Pitch - Yahoo Finance". https://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/power-pitch/man-scores-1-5-million-kitten-read-125715965.html.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Samantha Murphy (5 February 2013). "This App Packages News and Social Streams Into Video". Mashable. http://mashable.com/2013/02/05/guide-app/. Retrieved 13 February 2013.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Ken Yeung (5 February 2013). "Guide raises $1m to create a video news channel of websites read by avatars, now in private alpha". The Next Web. https://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/02/05/guide-raises-1m-to-create-a-video-news-channel-of-websites-read-by-avatars-now-in-private-alpha/. Retrieved 13 February 2013.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Darrell Etherington (5 February 2013). "Guide Raises $1M In Seed Funding To Replace TV News With Feeds And Virtual Anchors". TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2013/02/05/guide-raises-1m-in-seed-funding-to-replace-tv-news-with-feeds-and-virtual-anchors/. Retrieved 13 February 2013.
5. ↑ Liz Gannes (5 February 2013). "A Passive Newsreader App: Guide Wants Its Avatars to Read Your News". All Things Digital. http://allthingsd.com/20130205/a-passive-newsreader-app-guide-wants-its-avatars-to-read-your-news/. Retrieved 13 February 2013.
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Kira M. Newman (5 February 2013). "Don't have time to read? Gui.de turns your news into video". Tech Cocktail. http://tech.co/guide-turns-news-into-video-2013-02. Retrieved 13 February 2013.
7. ↑ "Blog feeds turned into personalized TV show". Springwise. 13 February 2013. http://www.springwise.com/media_publishing/blog-feeds-turned-personalized-tv-show/. Retrieved 15 February 2013.
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 "Miami-based startup turns your RSS feed into a personalized newscast". Contagious Magazine. 5 February 2013. Archived from the original on 12 March 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20130312142215/http://www.contagiousmagazine.com/2013/02/guide.php. Retrieved 13 February 2013.
9. ↑ Yi Chen (11 February 2013). "Digital anchors present any blog posts as TV news". psfk. http://www.psfk.com/2013/02/guide-digital-tv-news-app.html. Retrieved 13 February 2013.
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Nancy Dahlberg. "News: Miami startup Guide receives $1 million in seed funding; next stop SXSW". The Miami Herald. http://miamiherald.typepad.com/the-starting-gate/2013/02/miami-startup-guide-receives-1-million-in-seed-funding-next-stop-sxsw.html. Retrieved 13 February 2013.
11. ↑ Ellis Hamburger (5 February 2013). "Can Guide's digital news anchors replace daytime TV?". The Verge. https://www.theverge.com/2013/2/5/3950798/guide-app-for-ipad. Retrieved 13 February 2013.
12. ↑ Kira M. Newman (16 January 2013). "Leslie Bradshaw leaves JESS3, starts afresh as COO of Guide". Tech Cocktail. http://tech.co/leslie-bradshaw-leaves-jess3-starts-afresh-as-coo-of-guide-2013-01. Retrieved 17 January 2013.
13. ↑ Anna Heim (1 January 2013). "Awesome Offices: Inside 8 fantastic startup workplaces in Miami". The Next Web. https://thenextweb.com/la/2013/01/01/awesome-offices-inside-8-fantastic-startup-workplaces-in-miami/2/. Retrieved 13 February 2013.
14. ↑ "SXSW Accelerator 2013 Finalists". South by Southwest. SXSW Inc.. 2013. Archived from the original on 26 February 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20130226062710/http://sxsw.com/interactive/startupvillage/accelerator/finalists#overlay-context=interactive/. Retrieved 18 February 2013.

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