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Bozeman, Montana based Special raises $2.26M from Next Frontier and other investors to build a subscription platform for online creators
Special is a new startup offering online video creators a way to move beyond advertising for their income.
The service was created by the team behind tech consulting and development firm Triple Tree Software. Special’s co-founder and CEO Sam Lucas told me that the team had already “scrapped our way from nothing to a seven-figure annual revenue,” but when the founders met with Next Frontier Capital (Next Frontier, like Special, is based in Bozeman, Montana) they pitched a bigger idea — an app where creators charge a subscription fee for access to premium content.
While Triple Tree started in the service business, Lucas explained the goal was always to create “a product company that we could sell for $100 million.” Now Special is announcing it has raised $2.26 million in seed funding from Next Frontier and other investors.
MSU students’ company receives $2.26 million in investments
A group of former Montana State University students and their Bozeman-based streaming platform startup have found success in the business world, receiving millions of dollars in investments this year.
Special Project Inc., formerly Triple Tree Software, captured $2.26 million in funding this year to help launch its business this fall. Special Project is the brainchild of Sam Lucas and Paul Burton, former MSU students who majored in marketing in the Jake Jabs College of Business and Entrepreneurship and computer science in the Norm Asbjornson College of Engineering, respectively.
The company is an independent streaming platform for video creators to launch subscription video services via an app that can be watched on mobile, web and smart TVs. Special Project received $1.25 million from Next Frontier Capital, a Bozeman-based venture capital fund, as well as investments from Next Coast Ventures in Austin, 30 West in Los Angeles, SpringTime Ventures in Houston, and Service Provider Capital in Boulder, Colorado among a series of national media angel investors.
“This is super exciting and humbling for us, but at the same time I would not expect anything less from this group,” said Lucas, who graduated from MSU in 2016 and is CEO of Special Project. “We’ve been working together for the last few years, pushing each other to be the best we can possibly be. This has always been our objective, and the first of many greater challenges ahead. We are all so competitive in trying to make something impactful and meaningful. These opportunities have been coming to us, and we are thankful for every one of them, a true testament to our team, their hard work and technical prowess.”
Entrepreneurship was always the path Lucas and Burton wanted to pursue. While at MSU, Lucas worked as a venture coach and marketing director at the Blackstone LaunchPad and founded the student organization LaunchCats, a club where students had opportunities to solve problems for local businesses. It was these two organizations that brought Lucas and Burton together and helped them start Triple Tree Software as students.
