Coming up with a new name for a new company can be a quite strange experience - it takes a totally disproportionate amount of time, it is hardly scientific and it inspires some very heated, emotional debates. But there you have it. And while it does not mean anything now we think it will come to mean great quality Internet TV the way it should be.

“The longest road in the world is that between promising and keeping.”

The promise is still not fully realized, but we’ve come a long way, and – Venice is looking pretty darn cool!

We set out to try to merge the best of TV and the best of the Internet and I think we have just taken a big step on a long journey. For a few months we have been quietly testing with a small circle of people. Now, we’re going to expand that circle – with more and more people getting invited. If you want to take it for a spin, get an invitation from an existing beta tester.

The next months will bring many additional product features both on the end user and content provider side of things. And, importantly, more and more content. What you’ll see now is a preview of some of the categories of content you will find.

Stay tuned!

Venice is still in limited beta and God knows there is a lot of bugs to be ironed out and plenty of missing features. But we feel now is the time to start telling a bit about it.

What are we trying to do with Venice?

It’s simple, really — we are trying to bring together the best of TV with the best of the Internet. We think TV is one of the most powerful, engaging mass medias of all time. People love TV, but they also hate TV. They love the (sometimes…) amazing storytelling, the richness, the quality itself. But they hate the linearness, the lack of choice, the lack of basic things like being able to search. And wholly missing is everything that we are now accustomed to from the Internet: tagging, recommendations, choice, and so on… TV is 507 channels and nothing on and we want to help change that!

Stay tuned…

Oh and no, it won’t be called the Venice Project forever :-)

I grew up in the suburbs of Copenhagen but left Denmark in the late nineties, spent some time working for Tele2 in Amsterdam and now live and work in London.

I currently divide my time between Joost and Atomico.

I have been wanting to for a long time. Meanwhile my life — like most entrepreneurs’ — has been a bit of a rollercoaster. Well, it still is, but now blogging is part of the ride.

I see blogging as a chance to speak my part directly without interpretation from anyone. But mainly I want a personal platform where I can share my experience, some views, sounds and a few visual bits.

Finally I intend to take an occasional ride down memory lane…

Janus Friis photo 1
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Janus Friis photo 2
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Janus Friis photo 3
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Janus Friis photo 4
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Janus Friis photo 5
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Janus Friis photo 6
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Janus Friis photo 7
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Janus Friis photo 8
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Cover of Danish magazine EUROMAN, December 2005 featuring Janus Friis
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