Giza Venture Capital has invested $1.5 million in Israel’s Triond, a web publishing service. Triond enables content creators to publish original content of any kind (images, posts, etc), for publication on partner sites on Triond’s network. The result for the content creator is wider readership and the ability to monetize their content.
The business model is simple: Triond gets original content submitted by the user. Once approved, the content is posted on a partner site (likely through affiliate relations) the revenue generated from advertising is split 50-50 with the content creator. Triond’s publishing network includes several niche sites such as: authspot, trifter, telewatcher, bookstove, etc (none of which I recognize).
I tested the service and found it to be quick and intuitive. Within 5 minutes I was registered and my content was submitted, but I later found out that the post was rejected as it already exists online. I found the service to be similar to BloggersBase in some ways, as well as ArticleBase and Seeking Alpha, but it lacks a specific vertical focus and the monetization potential is questionable.
I liked the use of Zemanta (or a copycat) in the content creation page, which suggests tags and images for the post. Triond added social features on top of its ‘blogging’ platform, to allow authors to connect with each other and share feedback.
The company is run by CEO Shahar Solomianik who according to LinkedIn previously founded Intuactive, an online advertising agency.
He is a former General Partner at Google Ventures (GV) in Europe, former head of Google for Entrepreneurs in Europe, and founding head of Campus London, Google's first startup hub. Eze writes on Israeli tech, venture capital, artificial intelligence, and founder strategy.
He is also the founder of Techbikers, a nonprofit that brings together the startup ecosystem on cycling challenges in support of Room to Read.
