Though three recent Harvard graduates—Adam Katz ’07, Brian Feinstein ’07, and Michael Broukhim ’07—have moved on and away from the Yard, the office of their latest business venture hasn’t. In January 2007, the three started Opera New Media, which is, according to their Web site, “a design, development, and product strategy firm.” Feinstein describes Opera as an “interactive advertising agency,” and according to Katz, their aim is to “help companies strategize, implement, and be effective online. If they want to build a Web site, market a product, create a video, or even gain influence on Facebook, we help them do that.”
The Internet, explains Katz, often presents new challenges for companies, challenges which Opera New Media wants to capitalize on: “Companies right now are very comfortable with traditional mediums—television, radio, print. They are not yet comfortable with internet and social media. I mean things like Facebook, Digg, Reddit, Flickr—all these different new mediums that are participatory.”
In addition to their blog—www.brilliantenough.com—which covers “the web, politics, and the media,” Katz, Feinstein, and Broukhim are currently focused on TotSpot, “a social publishing venture.” (Broukhim is a former Crimson editorial chair.) TotSpot helps parents who aren’t technically savvy share their children’s milestones on the Internet, giving “parents an easy way to tell friends and family about their kids. They can publish photos, videos, firsts, to show a phase when you are beautiful and innocent,” according to Katz. Warning to prospective TotSpot users: anything that includes braces or other such token symbols of the awkward phase ought not be included.
With the success of their previous ventures, it doesn’t seem that the fat lady will sing before the true potential of Opera is realized. Though entrepreneurship at Harvard is nothing new, multiple creative ventures are refreshing. Especially when they are coming from a sweet office on Mass. Ave.
