I never thought much of Los Angeles. I'm from Northern California and I did my undergraduate work at UC Berkeley, a world away from the LA basin. But I took a job there right after I graduated and parked myself in a Hollywood studio apartment while I worked downtown. Soon after I left LA to study at MIT Sloan, I started Scripped.com.
Scripped is unusual in the web startup space: we're actually trying to make money. Yes, we are giving away a free web app, but we now offer a suite of services around it to further ease the screenwriting process. Our free product is an online version of packaged software like Movie Magic Screenwriter that allows any writer to produce a screenplay in the industry-standard format. Surrounding this product we have security and editing services, and soon will offer account upgrades for more rich features.
We now have over 10,000 screenplays and nearly 9,000 writers on the system. Ultimately, we want to grow both numbers 10-fold and be in a position to distribute content for videos that are produced as webisodes online or feature films in theaters. We are actively pursuing this goal, forming key partnerships and raising Series A capital from local angel investors.
MIT has had a profound impact on my ability to operate as an executive of a startup. The analytical framework to address complex business problems, hammered prodigiously in the Sloan core, continues to serve. And more importantly, my colleagues from both the Classes of 2008 and 2009 have been instrumental in connecting me to VCs and angels.
I am excited to be in the entertainment technology industry and to meet other MIT alums. At Sloan I organized our Entertainment, Media, & Sports Club trek to LA, where we met many alums in local firms. Now as a business-owner in the area, I hope to get further connected. I would be happy to speak with anyone who might be interested!
Please contact me at ryan@scripped.com.
Ryan Buckley
MIT Sloan Class of 2009
Co-founder, Scripped, Inc.
www.scripped.com
Check our our Picasa page for great photos from past events!
Over 120 Alums Gather for Annual Meeting
On Saturday, June 28th, 120 local MIT alumni gathered at Pasadena's Brookside Golf Course for the MITCSC's Annual Meeting and Champagne Brunch.
This year's event featured Eliot Mack SM '96, founder of Lightcraft Technology (www.lightcrafttech.com), a company that develops next generation of cinematic tools. Mr. Mack brought along his company's main product, Previzion HD Studio, and revolutionary cinemating technology that eliminates the tedious work of a large-scale film production. Previzion's portable, flexible, real-time, and virtual set technology, which took Mr. Mack's team 5 years to develop, can place anybody in front of a green screen onto any virtual location with ease and without loss of quality. Local alums stood in front of Mr. Mack's green screen and enjoyed placing themselves into middle of NYC's Times Square at the touch of a button.
Mr. Mack spoke about his new project while recounting his "lessons learned" throughout his career. He recounted his engineering expereinces at Disney Imagineering R&D group, where he designed the backbone frame of the largest dinosaur robot, which is still one of the largest walking machines ever built at 13 feet tall and 11,000 lbs. He also discussed his experience at the $1 billion iRobot Corporation, where he led the engineering group through the development of the Roomba Robotic vacuum cleaner, which went on to be the world's first commercially successful home robot selling millions of units.
This event was one to remember as alums reconnected with their fellow alumni over a nice brunch, interesting speaker, and sunny socal golf weather.
To those of you who attended, thank you. We hope to see you at another event soon!
