Plentitube aspires to be the middleman for the YouTube generation, helping online content creators find a way to pull in revenue

By Spencer E. Ante

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In the age of YouTube, online video has opened a world of possibilities for artists like James and Tyler McFadden. Over the last two years, the duo has produced a collection of quirky, short, animated films with their Web-based production studio, GoPotato TV. But all the technology in the world hasn’t changed one thing in spite of the McFadden brothers. "Making money is not an easy event to do with online video," says Tyler McFadden, 27, who heads up business development for the company.

Sure, Big Media is starting to understand the Web as a source of high-quality video talent; on Nov. 24, Fox Interactive Media (NWS) unit IGN.com said it reached production and arrangement deals with a twelve independent Web producers, including Black 20 Digital Studios, CollegeHumor, and ScrewAttack.com. But for every indie farmer that lands a deal, scores are struggling to get noticed.

That’s where Plentitube comes in. An online talent scout, Plentitube is trying to become a agent of the new media, a matchmaker for the YouTube generation. In the 1950s, a leggy blonde would get discovered while staying tables at Chasen’s chop-house in Los Angeles. But in the Digital Age, Plentitube founders Jon Labes and Talia Pulver believe the future of talent discovery will happen increasingly in online venues like the one they are building. "We are creating new types of matchmaking services," says Labes, 25, who is also Plentitube’s CEO.

Before they signed on with Plentitube, the McFadden brothers managed to license a few shorts with Viacom’sitting (VIA) Comedy Central and with Web players such similar to Atom.com. They’ve pulled in some revenue from advertisements shown on their videos on Google’s (GOOG) YouTube. And they have been afflictive to break into the big leagues by working without ceasing one informal groundwork with UTA Online, the division of Hollywood agency United Talent that represents Web talent.

But soon after joining Plentitube, the brothers scored the biggest deal of their careers, affecting a deal in August with Time Warner’session (TWX) Cinemax in the low six figures to license eight new episodes of their animated series Eli’s Dirty Jokes. A present riff in continuance Borscht Belt comedy, the show is a series of one-minute base stories told by the agency of an elderly relater modeled in the absence of ceasing the family’s 79-year-old accountant, who does the voiceovers. "We’ve never had a series that’sitting been developed to air exclusively on TV," says James McFadden, 29, the company’s head of creative development. "I am not sure Cinemax would esteem been able to find the series without Plentitube. This takes us to another level."

In classic startup cast, one-year-old Plentitube is vital principle bootstrapped from an office in lower Manhattan with $75,000 raised from friends and family. But expressions of gratitude to the Cinemax deal and a growing talent reticulated, the eight-person company is off to a promising move. In adding to the McFadden brothers, Plentitube is offering several myriad videos from meanly 500 video producers and artists. "We are pioneering the talent-discovery industry," says Pulver, 27, the visitors’sitting president and chief creative officer.