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George Vanous

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1. Known for: Founding the Freedom! YouTube multi-channel network and the Heartbeat platform (per PR Newswire)
2. Role: Founder and CEO of Freedom! and Heartbeat (according to George)
3. Previous venture: Founder of TGN (The Gaming Network), sold to BroadbandTV in 2012 (per PR Newswire)
4. Company entity: Freedom! Family Limited (developer of the Heartbeat extension)
5. MCN launch: Freedom! launched on 1 December 2013
6. Integrated network: AID Partners agreed in October 2016 to acquire a 50.01% controlling interest in any.TV, the owner of Freedom!; the subscription was terminated in March 2017 without completing
7. Base of operations: Lives in Dubai since 2018 (according to tips.h.ki); GitHub profile lists Vancouver, Canada
8. Online presence: YouTube channel 'George Vanous'; h.ki profile; Medium; GitHub (GeorgeHelpsYou)
9. Other role: Managing director, Fortys Four Building Contracting LLC, Dubai (per his LinkedIn profile)
10. Education: Simon Fraser University (per his LinkedIn profile)
11. TGN
12. George Vanous founded and built TGN (The Gaming Network) and sold it to BroadbandTV in 2012, according to PR Newswire. BroadbandTV relaunched TGN in September 2014 with 11 new shows across Twitch and YouTube. Andrew Wall, TGN's head of network development, told Tubefilter that month that the relaunched network would keep a clear focus on gaming itself and would not branch out to embrace other "geek culture" topics.
13. Freedom!
14. George is the founder and CEO of Freedom!, a YouTube multi-channel network (MCN) that he launched on 1 December 2013. In a December 2014 press release, Freedom! said the network had passed 100,000 channels and 50 million subscribers and ranked No. 7 in the English-language YouTube market and No. 1 in the Chinese-language market, with localized Mandarin support. The release gave two figures for monthly video views: 1.3 billion in its body and 1.1 billion in its 'About Freedom!' section. By October 2016, according to a press release cited by the South China Morning Post, Freedom! had more than 177,000 channel partners, 211 million subscribers and 45 billion aggregate views worldwide; Variety, citing the same release, reported the aggregate views as 46 billion.
15. The December 2014 release also announced two US$100,000 sponsorship programs (one for small channels, one for gamers) and US$10,000 monthly sponsorships for young entrepreneurs under 'Master Networks powered by Freedom!', and said the company had acquired a 20,000-square-foot office and studio space in Eastwood City, Philippines. In November 2020, Freedom! said on tips.h.ki that it operated nine companies in eight countries with US$40 million in annual revenue. Its 'benefits to creators' page says Freedom! pays creators every seven days, where YouTube pays monthly.
16. AID Partners and any.TV
17. On 13 October 2016, AID Partners Technology Holdings announced that it had agreed to acquire a 50.01% controlling interest in any.TV, the owner of the Freedom! network, for US$60 million (HK$468 million). The announcement was made by AID Partners chairman and chief investment officer Kelvin Wu and by executive director and CEO Gilbert Ho, the South China Morning Post reported. AID Partners is listed on the Growth Enterprise Market section of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. CB Insights lists any.TV as headquartered in Hong Kong, with AID Partners Technology Holdings as an investor and the latest funding round recorded as 'Corporate Majority'. The subscription never completed. On 16 March 2017, AID Partners announced that, because certain conditions precedent had not been fulfilled, the subscriber, the target company and the guarantor had agreed to terminate the subscription agreement and had entered into a deed of termination, under which the target company was to refund the US$990,000 deposit in full within five business days. The announcement names the target as Freedom! Family Limited, formerly any.TV Limited, and records the board's view that the termination would have no material adverse effect on the group.
18. Heartbeat
19. George's YouTube channel bio describes Heartbeat as a startup he founded 'to repeat the process again' after Freedom!. The Chrome Web Store lists 'Freedom! Family Limited' as the developer of the Heartbeat extension. Freedom!'s 'benefits to creators' page describes Heartbeat Moments as a tool that lets YouTube viewers press the H key to save favorite video moments. In the Freedom! YouTube video 'Be useful' (30 May 2023), George presented 'Be useful' as Heartbeat's mission statement and demonstrated Heartbeat Moments and Heartbeat Photos. In his '6 Years in Dubai' video of 29 December 2024, he said Heartbeat then had 3,125 signed-in users and 125,000 assets created.
20. Public appearances and statements
21. YouTube invited George to speak at the YouTube Enterprise Summit 2020 for EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) and address more than 100 YouTube staff and MCN executives about Freedom!, according to tips.h.ki. Freedom! published a full recording of his speech there on 22 November 2020.
22. Freedom Games
23. Freedom Games was founded in 2020 and secured US$10 million in a funding round led by Play Ventures, with participation from Nashville Capital Network (NCN) and GFR Fund, 80.lv reported, quoting Ben Robinson, whom it described as COO and co-founder of Freedom Games. The company said the funding would go toward expanding staff, growing its indie catalog and developing its community platform wiki.gg. George states that he co-founded Freedom Games with Donovan Duncan in 2020 and closed its US$10 million Series A at a US$40 million post-money valuation; his role is not documented by an independent source.
24. Personal life
25. George's YouTube channel bio describes him as the father of four girls. A tips.h.ki post of 23 May 2023 says he has lived in Dubai with his wife and four daughters since 2018, while his GitHub profile gives Vancouver, Canada, as his location. His LinkedIn profile records studies at Simon Fraser University.
26. Online presence
27. George's YouTube channel names him as the founder and CEO of Freedom! and Heartbeat. The About page of the Freedom! YouTube channel lists him as CEO and founder and links to his h.ki profile. His Medium profile identifies him as 'CEO & Founder of Freedom!' and links to https://www.freedom.tm/. His GitHub account, 'GeorgeHelpsYou', describes him as 'CEO and founder of Freedom!' under the organization name 'Freedom! Family Limited'. His LinkedIn profile lists him as managing director of Fortys Four Building Contracting LLC in Dubai.
28. 2012: George sells TGN to BroadbandTV (per Freedom!'s December 2014 release).
29. 2013-12-01: Freedom! MCN launched.
30. 2014-09-03: BroadbandTV relaunches TGN with 11 new shows on Twitch and YouTube.
31. 2014-12-03: Freedom! announces 100,000 channels and 50 million subscribers in its first-anniversary release.
32. 2016-10-13: AID Partners Technology Holdings announces agreement to acquire a 50.01% controlling interest in any.TV for US$60 million (HK$468 million).
33. 2017-03-16: AID Partners announces that the proposed subscription has been terminated by a deed of termination after conditions precedent went unfulfilled; the US$990,000 deposit is to be refunded in full.
34. 2020: Freedom Games is founded; George states that he co-founded it with Donovan Duncan.
35. 2020-11-22: According to Freedom! (tips.h.ki), George speaks at the YouTube Enterprise Summit 2020 for EMEA; recording published by Freedom!.
36. 2022-11-07: Freedom Games announces US$10 million funding round led by Play Ventures.
37. 2023-12-01: Freedom! marks its tenth anniversary.

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