Startups are apparently full of so many potential comedic mishaps that they warrant their own TV series. Thus enters Leap Year, a new comedy series from small business insurer, Hiscox, a London-based company that has a branch located in downtown Chicago .
The series tracks the entrepreneurial highs and lows of five friends who “make the leap” and start their own companies after experiencing corporate downsizing. They’ve all been laid off – a publicist, a business consultant, IT employee, recruiter and a financial advisor. Content includes commentary on each episode from The Young Entrepreneur Council (Y.E.C.) and startup stories from founders of Mashable, Thrillist, and Tumblr.
It sounds like a small business version of "Friends" after an economic meltdown, but as Hiscox employee Hunter Hoffman points out: “Startup issues are universal. Everyone faces the same challenges."
The show chronicles businesses based in NY, but has plans to include other cities. Themes range from the challenges of hiring your first employee to how to insure a business in its first year.
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The cast includes film, television and web series people including Yuri Baranovsky (writer and director), Mashable Editor-in-Chief Adam Ostrow is featured, and there are brief cameos from authors Guy Kawasaki (Alltop.com, Enchanted) and Gary Vaynerchuk (Daily Grape, The Thank You Economy). So you can learn something.
New episodes will air Mondays on www.leapyear-hiscox.tv, Hulu, YouTube, Inc.com and iTunes as well as on connected TVs and Blu-ray players, gaming consoles, and mobile devices through (paid subscription-based) Hulu Plus.
Perhaps Groupon’s Andrew Mason will be on a featured episode in the future.
