Kyle
Daniel Gnecco and his father Juan Pablo Gnecco founders of MOVL/KontrolTV (photo bu.edu)
Just moments ago we wrote about Mark Cuban backed startup Kisstixx out of Utah who just won the United States Small Business Administration Video Contest. Kisstixx was able to convince Dallas Mavericks owner and venture capitalist Mark Cuban to shell out $200,000 of his own money on national tv, for the innovative lip balm startup.
KontrolTV was a little different. As our friends at Bostinno.com report. Daniel Gnecco, a senior at Boston University this past school year, convinced Cuban to invest in his family run startup MOVL. The younger Gnecco is a co-founder in the video startup with his father Juan Pablo Gnecco.
As the story goes, Daniel saw that Cuban would be speaking at an entrepreneurship event at Babson. Daniel was able to get into the event and then have some face time with Cuban after he finished speaking.
Cuban reportedly emailed Daniel later that day and immediately started negotiating a deal with MOVL. The talks were interrupted by the ending of the NBA walkout but once basketball resumed so did the discussions between Cuban and the Boston startup.
According to bostinno.com Cuban invested $500,000 into the startup that lets you link your television experience with your social activity via your mobile device. It’s a little more robust than GetGlue.
More after the break
MOVL/KontrolTV was the just recently announced as the winner of Boston University’s $50k New Venture Competition.
While Kisstixx Shark Tank appearance happened before the US Small Business Administration contest, Daniel Gnecco and MOVL had negotiated with Cuban just about the same time that they were announced as finalists in the New Venture Competition.
Gnecco told bostinno.com prior to actually winning the Boston Univesity contest:
“The investment has opened doors and Mark’s experience has our focus where it needs to be. As talks with manufacturers and cable providers progress, things are getting hot. We are excited about the next round of funding we are currently raising and more importantly about the products we are going to deliver. It’s crazy how fast it all happened and this coupled with the BU 50K New Venture Competition finalist news has been truly amazing and now we need to get to work!”
