Tipped is an online network that produces and distributes outstanding new and original series on the web. The network will serve as a community for audiences who want some control over the content they watch, and for artists who need a platform on which to broadcast their ideas for episodic series. It is our mission to launch a network that will showcase series with a fresh and youthful voice—from series commissioned by Tipped, to promising series already in production, and everything in between.

We already have 4 series in development that will debut with the launch of our site later this year, but we’ll also start to accept pitches of additional series whose creators seek financial and developmental assistance. Tipped will host a regular Pilot Contest which will feature the best pilot episodes submitted to us. We will then turn to our viewers to vote on which pilots they would most like to see developed into a full series. This way, we’ll tip you off to great new talent and programming, and you’ll tip us off to what you actually want to watch.

Tipped is a community that takes advantage of how we watch television today, but still focuses on what is most important: finding and fostering talent and content you won’t see anywhere else. Audiences can watch our series when and how they want to, series creators will share in our advertising revenue, and advertisers will target all viewers no matter when they choose to “tune in” to the site. Ideally, Tipped will empower all parties involved with the success of our series by uncovering promising talent but also paying attention to what our audiences want to watch. Tipped will be the kind of fluid community where today's viewer is tomorrow's producer and today's performer is tomorrow's household name.

Who Are We?

We are a small group of recent college graduates and we love watching series as much as we love creating and developing them. Among the amount of Hulu-ing, YouTubing, Netflixing, and movie watching we do on a regular basis, we like to consider ourselves hyper-consumers who have a finger on the pulse of the entertainment industry and a pretty good idea of where it's heading. We understand and share in the enthusiasm of writers, producers and performers who want to use new technology to create outstanding web series but don’t necessarily have a place for their finished products to live and thrive. 

As young consumers, we also understand the difficulty in sitting down exactly at 8pm on a specific weeknight night to watch a new episode of our favorite show. Tipped is a site that benefits both producers and consumers: we’ll find great content and distribute it in a way that makes sense. Our credits include producing, designing, and performing for series on MTV, Vh1, and the web, so we know how to develop promising concepts into multi-episode series. Our background as producing partners dates back to our time together at Northwestern University where, in addition to creating multiple popular web series, we served on the same theatre production company, producing brand new work for the student body. 

Why Does Tipped Need You?

With your generous contribution to our IndieGoGo page, we can hire experienced web developers to create “Version 1” of our site. We are looking to build a Tipped.tv in Beta that hosts a homepage featuring new episodes and series, individual show pages that permanently house our series, a contest submission page to receive show pitches and allow our audiences to vote on their favorites to be fully developed, and user-profiles so members of our Tipped community can start interacting with each other.

In addition to building our site, we want to help fund a few of the series we have picked up and started to develop. These funds will go toward equipment rentals, securing filming locations, hiring necessary crewmembers and editing the series. Our premiere group of series will launch with Tipped.tv in late 2012. Please check out the various perks on the side of this page to see what else you will receive if you donate to Tipped, including access to our Tipped Blog so you can track our progress.

Why Do You Need Tipped?

Programming on Tipped will run the gamut: from scripted comedies and dramas, to sketch-based series and beyond. There is no traditional programming block or agenda, so our shows will contain as many episodes in as many seasons necessary to tell the story as long as our audiences want to watch them. And, we’ll measure viewership in a way that takes into account audiences who watch TV online at work, or early in the morning, or late at night. We’ll bridge the gap between series producers and series consumers, and loop in advertisers to ensure our network is sustainable.

As an audience member, you’ll be introduced to exciting and promising new talent and programming. There are great sites that currently allow you to watch last night’s episode of your favorite broadcast TV show, and others that let you catch up on a series from years past, but Tipped will finally introduce you to new content exclusively on the web.

As a producer or writer who can’t get a pitch meeting with a traditional broadcast network, you will finally have a community that will develop your series and watch it. If you’re looking for a more viable home for your series than your own personal website or a free-uploading service competing with videos of cats playing with yarn, Tipped can help you out. We're even exploring the opportunity to share revenue that advertising generates on your show’s page.

If you help Tipped now, you’ll have a hand in shaping a new kind of television network that you can be a part of someday soon—either as a viewer or as an artist. Help us help you! 

Thank you for your support!

Austin Breslow, Chase Altenbern and Aaron Eisenberg

Tipped Co-Founders