Pop17’s Sarah Austin was at a Rev3 party at NME in Vegas got a great interview with Kent Nichols about Ask A Ninja.

When Rocketboom’s Andrew Baron and Amanda Congdon went their separate ways in a very public way, Kent Nichols and Douglas Sarine of Ask A Ninja asked themselves, “If Rocketboom doesn’t know how to make this work then who does?” Kent and Douglas decided that no one knew how to make money in web video at that time and they realized that if they wanted to keep making their intelligently funny video series of questions answered by a Ninja they better figure it out fast.

I first met Kent Nichols at in 06 at Vloggercon. We were on a panel together about creating characters that should have been a dunk tank. The crowd was very angry that there were people on the panel focused on making money and they were ready to kill us. Kent handled himself very well in contrast to the linch mob that was ready to nail us to the wall. It was surreal. I later met Douglas Sarine at Comic-Con and I run into both Kent and Douglas now fairly often at events and meet-ups in LA. We all even went to see a movie together this last year. I think movies are where Kent and Douglas are most focused now.

After the public divorce of Rocketboom creators Kent and Douglas got serious about online video. Following in the footsteps of many independent filmmakers they created a LLC and with investments from friends and family they had enough money to live off of and continue making low cost episodes of Ask A Ninja. While the rest of us early web video creators were focused on Apple’s iTunes Kent and Douglas reached out beyond the iTunes store and embraced Revver and YouTube earning both awards and money but the big money deal came when their agents at UTA negotiated a deal with John Batelle’s Federated Media. This was truly a groundbreaking deal. Kent and Douglas retained ownership of Ask A Ninja and Federated Media handled all of their advertising allowing Kent and Douglas to pay back their investors and start making a profit. (Last I heard the Ask a Ninja enterprise was grossing $100,000 per month.)

Next Kent and Douglas created and continue to sell a DVD of Ask A Ninja. In addition to that they have experimented with live shows where the Ninja answers questions from a live theater audience and recently they penned a best selling book The Ninja Handbook.

Beyond all the success Kent and Douglas have had with Ask A Ninja they have now signed a deal to write a remake of Attack of the Killer Tomatoes and Kent will direct.

Kent Nichols and Douglas Sarine have explored many options in web video and have been on the cutting edge both in creativity and business making them true leaders in online video.

Kent also introduced me to UTA who is now my agent. Thanks Kent.