Glidr aims to help consumers navigate a sea of streaming options

What are you watching? It's a question that tends to pop up among family, friends and coworkers. The water cooler may be a corporate relic, but thanks to the rise and popularity of free and paid streaming services, the video landscape is certainly rife with water cooler-worthy TV shows, series and movies. Perhaps too many. 

A startup called Glidr Inc. wants to help consumers cut through the clutter and zero in on content that their social media circles enjoy and recommend. It's trying to tackle that challenge with a free app that, following several months of testing, recently launched on Android and iOS devices. 

The general idea is to help consumers discover content they might be interested in watching and to help them manage the various streaming services they use and pay for. But rather than relying heavily on AI and machine learning techniques to surface and recommend content, Glidr's platform is powered in part by what a user's family and friends are watching and recommending.

"When your friend recommends something or your family member recommends something to watch, you're probably going to watch it," contends Glidr CEO Adam Tom, who recently joined the Light Reading Podcast to discuss the company and broader trend impacting the streaming sector. "There's all these great recommendation engines out there. But when your family or friend says something, that's really a strong recommendation." 

Glidr's ranks include vets from the cable industry and video tech industries. Adam Tom is late of Imedia, Terayon and RGB Networks (sold to Imagine Communications in 2015), and more recently was with Samsung, heading up North American engineering for smart TVs as well as engineering for Samsung's connected TV ad business. Also joining the podcast is Christopher Lee, Glidr's product director. Lee is a video engineering vet previously with Gemstar TV Guide and Comcast, where he aided in the development of products for the operator's X1 video platform.  

You can download a lightly edited transcript of the podcast here. If you want to skip around and listen, here are a few topics discussed during this podcast:

• An expansion into the background on the Glidr team and its ties to the cable and video tech industries (00:30)
• A discussion about the problems and challenges Glidr is trying to address with its direct-to-consumer app. (3:22) 
• How Glidr is tapping into a user's circle of family and friends, rather than just AI and machine learning techniques, to deliver movie and TV recommendations. (5:30) 
• How Glidr intends to help consumers manage and track their streaming subscriptions and provide a secure way to store and manage passwords in a central location (18:00) 
• How Glidr expects its revenue model to evolve into areas such as marketing services and sponsorships as it scales up its user base (21:00) 
• An update on Glidr's financial situation, including a recent investment from Goodwater Capital (27:10) 
• A snapshot of the company's plans and priorities for the rest of 2022 and into 2023 (28:45) 

— Jeff Baumgartner, Senior Editor, Light Reading

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