Vessel
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
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Sections to complete：02 · 05
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Vessel was a short-form video subscription service founded by former Hulu CEO Jason Kilar and CTO Richard Tom, who left Hulu in 2013 and came out of stealth in June 2014. Positioned as an upstart rival to YouTube, it offered a free tier plus a $2.99-per-month subscription for exclusive, ad-free content from digital creators like Machinima, Nerdist and SeaNanners, as well as Discovery Channel and National Geographic.
02 / FAILURE REASONS
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03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Founded
Vessel was founded by former Hulu CEO Jason Kilar and CTO Richard Tom after they left Hulu in 2013.
- Launch
Vessel came out of stealth in June 2014 and publicly launched its short-form video subscription service in March 2015.
- Acquired by Verizon, service shut down
Verizon acquired Vessel's technology and product (terms undisclosed), hiring most of the team and naming co-founder and CTO Richard Tom as CTO of its digital entertainment efforts; Kilar did not stay. The Vessel service itself was sunset on October 31, 2016, with subscribers receiving October free and annual-plan refunds.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN / AFTERMATH
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