MyMediabox was founded by CEO Eric Rennagel in the early 2000s. But the story of how MyMediabox came into existance begins much farther back, before the company’s start. 

This story begins in the early 1990s in Los Angeles, California, where Eric began his career working in Animation, Licensing and Television Distribution at companies such as Marvel Productions (Spiderman), and Tsuburaya Productions (Ultraman). Though the Internet was in its infancy and technologies were limited compared to today, Eric has always been a visionary, and he immediately identified a need for online product approvals and digital asset management as a way to help licensors and licensees be more productive. He knew first-hand how challenging it was to travel for foreign business and trade shows, while still keeping pace with approving product designs and delivering the latest updated style guide artwork to licensees, all while facing pressures to maintain high quality and hit ever-shrinking production deadlines and marketing windows. An idea began to take form.  

 Like many start-ups, MyMediabox was inspired by a simple thought: “There has to be a better way.” Eric’s experiences in a licensor’s capacity, and having “walked in those shoes” before getting into the software side of the business, made all the difference in genuinely understanding the problems faced by licensors, agents and licensees.

In 2003, Eric founded a company called  Conecture Technologies, which would be the forerunner of MyMediabox. Conecture Technologies debuted its inaugural software solution, Mediabox, a cutting edge and cloud-based digital asset management system developed in-house, from the ground up for the Consumer Products Licensing and Media & Entertainment Distribution industries. 

You might be wondering, who was Conecture’s very first client? MGM Studios’ Consumer Products corporate licensing division was Conecture’s first account!

Within the first five years, the company roster had grown to 25 accounts, an incredible feat at a time considering the vast majority of licensing teams were still doing business old school style. Remember all those spreadsheets?  

In the earliest years of the company’s success, Eric and his development team had already conceived a detailed new product roadmap, conceptualizing future solutions focused on every aspect of the brand licensing lifecycle. The first new product on that list was launched in 2007. Mediabox-PA introduced a flexible collaboration platform allowing licensing professionals to manage the entire product approvals workflow in one centralized, online location, promoting increased productivity without sacrificing design quality. It was an industry game-changer and an instant success.

Fast forward to 2012, a very important year for this story. This was the year that Conecture Technologies was acquired by Jonas Software USA, Inc., a subsidiary of Constellation Software Inc. (a publicly traded Canadian company that today boasts a CAD $13 billion market cap). Eric and the entire team remained in place and continued managing day to day operations. The company name was officially changed to MyMediabox.

The acquisition gave MyMediabox the solid financial backbone it enjoys today, plus it ensured  peace of mind for our clients. How so? Because  Jonas NEVER SELLS a business. Our clients rest assured that, unlike venture capitalists funding a start-up tech company, Jonas is not an investor aggressively pursuing a predetermined exit strategy. MyMediabox will never be sold off to a highest bidder, never leaving our clients vulnerable to gross cost increases needed to sustain a new owner’s business model.

In 2013, MyMediabox added Mediabox-RM to its software suite. Mediabox-RM manages the entire contract lifecycle with automated workflows, availability tracking of IP rights sold/unsold, contract management, approved SKU inventory, royalty reporting, and so much more. By this time, the number of licensors and agencies utilizing Mediabox software had topped 100.

In 2020, MyMediabox launched Mediabox-SM for security tag management. This system integrates with Mediabox-PA, so that licensees can access and purchase security tags from vetted vendors in the licensing industry’s first and only marketplace, and so that tag placement can be approved at the same time as the packaging design. Mediabox-SM tracks the tag numbers per SKU, adding additional transparency when cross referencing with Sales Reports submitted by the licensee via Mediabox-RM.

By 2020, MyMediabox’s staff had grown to 30+ in-house developers and licensing experts located in the United States (Georgia, Ohio and Florida), Canada, Iceland and France. Our partnership with Jonas Software/CSI, Inc. continued to be a great opportunity for MyMediabox to be a part of something bigger, enabling us to offer a level of financial security to our customers that is unique in the industry.  

Mediabox-AD, the Analytics Dashboard, launched in 2021. The AD is a user’s single point of entry into his or her world of Mediabox. From the AD, users can easily go to any Mediabox site where they’re registered. The Dashboard aggregates KPI data from across all the sites accessed, displayed graphically for easy analysis. Users can choose to view charts based on daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or annually metrics. The data is updated in real time, so it’s easy to stay on top of the latest trends and make important, data-driven decisions.

Also in 2021, we expanded our team by bringing on board a new customer success specialist and two new sales representatives, tasked with supporting our growning business in the Asian market. Located in Tokyo, these new team members conduct sales demos and deliver customer support entirely in Japanese and during local business hours.