If Hollywood is going to get into the app game, we’d much rather it be an animation powerhouse like DreamWorks than, say, CAA and its tech-lite celebrity clientele. After nine months of stealth mode, DWA Investments, a separate company incubated and funded exclusively by DreamWorks, is releasing its first foray into the startup world. Ptch, which makes its debut in iTunes App Store today, wants to be a multimedia Instagram.
Long-time DreamsWorks CTO Ed Leonard, formerly director of R&D at Disney Animation, is devoting himself to the project full time as Ptch’s CEO.
“It became very clear to us that the right way to do this is to fill the room with some passionate people whose every waking moment is spent bringing the product to life,” Mr. Leonard told Betabeat by phone. After watching companies like Instagram successfully turn smartphone cameras into a tool for self-expression, he “got bit by the bug” and wanted to develop for mobile. “I asked Jeffrey [Katzenberg], our CEO, if I could go run it and he was surprised, intrigued, and I ultimately convinced him.”
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