A Company With a Long-Term Veoh

For an independent film producer to "make it," he pitches his product to a television or movie studio with only a slight hope it will ever see the light of day, regardless of how good it is. Think of all the wasted time, energy -- and film.

Four years ago, Dmitry Shapiro conceived of Veoh, an Internet TV service that enables independent producers to post high-quality, long-form video where visitors can find, watch and personalize their selections. It's redefining success for video producers.

"We wanted to build a platform that allows anyone to broadcast Internet television," says Shapiro, 39. "It wasn't built for kids to share a bunch of short, little clips. It was built for people who actually wanted to produce something and deliver it to the masses."

Shapiro launched Veoh in the fall of 2005, and, within three years, he has delivered on his promise. According to Alexa.com, an Internet traffic-monitoring Web site, Veoh.com is one of the top 100 most-visited sites in the U.S. Not bad for a guy who learned English by watching television after moving to the U.S. from Russia at age 10.

Veoh serves more than 100,000 content publishers, including a roster of cable and TV networks from CBS, ABC, ESPN and Viacom (STOCK QUOTE: VIA). In addition, Veoh features videos from Google's (STOCK QUOTE: GOOG) YouTube and NBC's Hulu. With so much content, it would be easy for a channel surfer to drown.

"I always say in a world of 400 cable channels, it's always hard to find something to watch," says Shapiro, jokingly.