The next generation of video AI models will need a lot of video. Not just any video, but purpose-shot, rights-cleared footage that avoids the legal and ethical pitfalls of indiscriminate web scraping. WaffleVideo.Ai, a Los Angeles startup founded in 2024, is betting it can supply that data by turning creators into a distributed filming crew. Its marketplace connects AI companies with video producers who complete specific 'Missions' through a mobile app, uploading clips for a cut of the licensing revenue.
The mobile-first data wedge
Waffle's core product is a two-sided marketplace. On one side are AI companies seeking custom video data to train visual models. On the other are creators, who download the company's app, accept paid filming assignments, and upload their work. The company emphasizes a workflow built for mobile, with a 'patent-pending' Missions system designed to elicit specific, commercially safe footage [Perplexity Sonar Pro Brief]. The economic pitch to creators is a 30% revenue share on all licensing, including future relicensing of their clips [Perplexity Sonar Pro Brief]. For AI buyers, the value proposition is a scalable source of ethically sourced, rights-cleared video that sidesteps the murky copyright landscape of existing public datasets.
The early-stage traction signals
Public evidence points to a company in active build mode. The beta version of its app was reportedly ready as of February 2026, though not yet available on public app stores [Quinnipiac University, 2026]. The team has been recruiting creators through job postings on university career portals and LinkedIn since at least April 2025, seeking remote 'Video Creators' to complete paid tasks [LinkedIn, Apr 2025]. The founding team brings a mix of creative and technical backgrounds, led by CEO Joey Newfield, a filmmaker, COO Joshua Mesnik, and Founding CTO Mario Aburto [postPerspective, 2026]. They secured a spot in the FoundersBoost accelerator in late 2025 and have Hallstone Ventures listed as an investor [F6S].
| Role | Name | Background |
|---|---|---|
| Co-founder & CEO | Joey Newfield | Filmmaker, technology enthusiast focused on AI for creatives [Perplexity Sonar Pro Brief] |
| Co-founder & COO | Joshua Mesnik | Creative entrepreneur across tech, entertainment, education [Perplexity Sonar Pro Brief] |
| Founding CTO | Mario Aburto | Full-stack engineer and technical strategist [Perplexity Sonar Pro Brief, Jan 2026] |
Where the wheels could come off
The bet is clear, but the path is crowded and unproven. WaffleVideo.Ai operates in a competitive space with players like Troveo AI, Protege, and Defined.ai already vying for AI data budgets. Its differentiation hinges on a creator-centric, mobile-native workflow and a focus on video,a more complex and expensive data type than images or text. The company has not publicly named any AI company customers, and its reported pre-seed funding of approximately $250,000 is a modest war chest for scaling a two-sided marketplace [ProjectStartups, 2026]. Building liquidity,attracting enough high-quality creators to satisfy enterprise AI data budgets,remains the classic chicken-and-egg challenge. The company's public claims of agreements with multiple AI firms lack independent verification in the available record.
The next twelve months
For WaffleVideo.Ai, the immediate milestones are concrete: a public app store launch, the disclosure of a first named enterprise customer, and a seed round to fuel supply-side growth. The company's early moves suggest a focus on building the creator side first, a common wedge for marketplaces. Success will be measured not by app downloads, but by the volume, quality, and specificity of video data flowing through its platform to paying AI labs. The $250,000 pre-seed check from Hallstone Ventures and the FoundersBoost program bought runway for this initial build. The question for 2026 is whether they can convert that runway into a demonstrable pipeline of licensed video clips, proving that creators will reliably film for AI, and that AI companies will pay a premium for the resulting cleared data.
Sources
- [Quinnipiac University, 2026] Paid Video Tasks for AI Training (Remote) job listing | https://cas360.qu.edu/jobs/waffle-video-inc-paid-video-tasks-for-ai-training-remote/
- [LinkedIn, Apr 2025] Video Creator - Remote job listing | https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/video-creator-remote-at-wafflevideo-ai-3890876543/
- [postPerspective, 2026] Waffle Video founding team listing | https://postperspective.com
- [F6S] Waffle Video accelerator and investor profile | https://www.f6s.com
- [ProjectStartups, 2026] WaffleVideo.Ai pre-seed funding report | https://projectstartups.com