SXSW Startups: Tankee
The Forrest Four-Cast: February 18, 2019
Fifty diverse startups will aim to impress a panel of judges and a live audience with their skills, creativity and innovation at SXSW Pitch Presented by Cyndx. Winners in 10 categories will be announced at the Pitch Award Ceremony at 6:30 pm Sunday, March 10, at the Hilton Austin.
A finalist in Entertainment and Content, which pitches at 3:30 pm Sunday, March 10, Tankee helps parents protect their kids from inappropriate online content while allowing kids to watch gaming videos they love on mobile devices. From Minecraft adventures to ROBLOX music videos, Tankee’s team of real live humans review, create, and curate the best gaming content in a family-friendly, worry-free environment.
CEO Gerald Youngblood took some time to answer some questions about the company’s plans.
What is your competitive advantage?
Tankee is built for kids by people with a deep knowledge of the gaming landscape. We care about the context of what’s happening on the screen. We also work hard to protect the privacy of our users. Gaming content has unique elements like screen names, chat boxes, and other elements that make it hard to moderate algorithmically. We understand that for kids we have to watch the tone and situations presented in videos to ensure they are appropriate. Cyberbullying isn’t all about four-letter words and we understand that.
What are your goals for Tankee in 2019?
We will be focused on making Tankee a safe space for gaming in more homes around the world. That will happen based on expanding our user base, extending the product to additional platforms, and adding the right content to keep the audience engaged.
Tankee was built from the beginning to be a global platform. My prior experience leading a global team opened my eyes to gaming as a social community that breaks down barriers. Therefore, we built Tankee to be a platform that lends itself to localization. We will soon add new languages and locations as we expand distribution.
How does Tankee ensure that parents are aware of their resource?
We are working hard to get the message out via channels that parents go to for feedback and advice. We’ve been fortunate to work with organizations like kidSAFE to ensure our product is certified safe for kids. We’ve also received coverage from Kidscreen and Common Sense Media. This resulted in us recently winning the 2019 Kidscreen Award for Best Streaming Video Platform for Kids over YouTube Kids. In addition to this, we’ll be concentrating our efforts on reaching out to influential communities on platforms like Facebook where groups of parents around the world share insights and recommendations.
How do kids’ opinions factor into the company’s design?
Feedback from kids has been woven into every aspect of the company because we built it for them. Our mission is to be heroes with and for kids everywhere. This requires us to listen and respond accordingly. For example, kids recommended a replay button, they requested Mario Kart content, and we listened. They have reported items they find along the way and we addressed them.
Tankee is based in Austin. Tell us about the startup ecosystem there.
We are based at Capital Factory, which has a high concentration of startups, mentors, and community events. This provides an incredible foundation for building a business as well as access to other cities in Texas. We’ve been fortunate to truly extend our ecosystem to Dallas thanks to the support of Capital Factory and the University of Texas at Dallas. Tankee was recently selected to receive funds from the UTD Seed Fund, a program built to support companies founded by member of the UTD community and educating student on the venture funding process.
Tell us something about your previous experience at SXSW.
As an Austinite, I have experienced attending and living in a city that literally changes during the weeks of SXSW, so I’ve had a lot of experience with the conference and festivals. SXSW is a celebration of so many things I love about Austin brought to life in the most gloriously over-the-top way. I’ve participated as a poet many years ago, a corporate sponsor, and now as an entrepreneur and I’ve had fun every time. The most special part to me is that last year I got a chance to bring my son to SXSW Gaming where he could jump on a livestream while my wife watched and took screenshots at home. I’ll never forget that because it brought together so many things I love about SXSW, gaming, and the impact it can have on the people who can’t attend in person.
What are you hoping to get out of attending SXSW 2019?
We are on a mission to leverage the biggest event in our hometown to help our team at Tankee be heroes in households around the world. We want to give kids and families a chance to experience a new art form with gaming influencer content without the land mines from other platforms. We won’t let this amazing opportunity escape us because kids deserve all the energy we can give them.
How and when did your team come together?
We started working on the idea and investigating the market in mid 2017. The team has a mixture of big company experience at places like AMD, EA, ESPN, and Newsweek along with deep connections to esports, influencers, game developers, and technology.
If your team members weren’t building Tankee, what might they be doing?
Every single day the team experiences moments where we realize that we’re helping kids in some way. It’s a rush that I can’t explain and it’s incredibly addictive so I believe the team would find some way to keep that feeling. The team is so talented that they could do anything, but not everything enriches your soul.
What tech trend is your team most excited about?
The work that prior SXSW Pitch winner ICON is doing with applying 3D printing technology to creating affordable shelter is one of the most exciting things we’ve ever seen. That is the type of soul-enriching work our team is rooting for.
Name three people, in any field, alive or dead, you’d like to meet and tell us why.
Claude Monet: His art and the story of his life have had a huge impact on my life because he showed me how to continue building and dreaming forever, no matter what is going on around you. Every day wake up and endeavor to create something beautiful.
William Blake: He wrote for everyone and specifically captured a childlike wonder that I aspire to. He sought to change the world though a visionary elegance that reached me centuries later.
Barack & Michelle Obama (I know that’s two!): He was our President when my son was born and changed the paradigm for the dreams of minorities in this country. My formative years were spent in a house with five strong black women and I saw so many examples of them having to fight the world to move forward. Michelle Obama dealt with so many challenges while maintaining unfathomable grace and strength. We all needed her to be a rock and she turned out to be a diamond. They changed the world in so many ways that I’d love to say thank you in person.
What has the startup experience taught you about life?
Tankee won the 2019 Kidscreen Award for Best Streaming Platform for Kids a few days ago. We took home a trophy in the same category as a billion-dollar organization. I’m originally from Jackson, Miss. and as a black man I was more likely to be in prison than college, so I’m used to bucking a trend.
Now, we’re going to show kids from all kinds of backgrounds that you can transcend today and build a better tomorrow when you surround yourself with a few mission-driven people. That’s what I’ve learned and I’m learning more every day.
Look for more interviews with other SXSW Pitch finalists in this space between now and March.
Click here to see all 50 finalists for SXSW Pitch 2019, along with the links to their interviews on Medium.
Also, if you are an entrepreneur, check out all the cool panels and presentations in the Entrepreneurship and Startups Track, which runs March 8–12 at SXSW.
Hugh Forrest serves as Chief Programming Officer at SXSW, the world’s most unique gathering of creative professionals. He also tries to write at least four paragraphs per day on Medium. These posts often cover tech-related trends; other times they focus on books, pop culture, sports and other current events.
