Burst’s App Gives Families a Secure Way to Share Photos, Videos

The Launchpad is a series that introduces Mashable readers to compelling startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.

Name: Burst

One-Liner Pitch: Share life's moments smartly and securely.

Why It's Taking Off: Burst is an easy, secure way to capture photos and videos of important moments and share them with friends and family, without going through social networks.

We all have moments that we'd like to share online with some people, but not the entire world. Burst offers a simple way to capture, save and share those moments with the people you care most about.

Instead of publicly sharing your media on social networks, the free photo and video-sharing app securely stores them in the cloud so you can share them only with the people you trust. You can also safely view the videos and images from your computer, tablet or smartphone.

With Burst, users can import media or instantly capture photos or videos of up to five minutes long. Once you select the media you want to share, the app connects to your address book so that you can quickly pick out who to send it to. Users can also share to mobile numbers and e-mail addresses, or create unlimited private groups to share selectively. When you’re ready to share your moments, just “Burst it!” and your recipients will get an e-mail or text message with a link to your media.

"People are finding Burst as a way to connect with families in a mobile-centric way that lets them capture, save and share in a seamless manner," Bryant McBride, CEO of Burst, told Mashable.

For important events like hockey games and dance recitals that you just can’t miss, Bursts’ "Bubbles" feature lets you and the people you choose share moments with each other in real-time. If the event is on your mobile calendar, Burst will even auto-title the photos and videos you taken during that event.

Since launching in 2011, Burst has raised $3.5 million in funding from notable investors, including American City Business Journals, Thomas DiBenedetto (part owner of the Boston Red Sox), former Major League Baseball commissioner Fay Vincent and Jesse Itzler, co-founder of Marquis Jet.

The Burst team has several revenue models in place, including letting users post Burst photos and videos to corporate and publishing websites, as well as letting travel companies integrate Burst's functionality into their apps in exchange for a usage fee.

Although the app was built with families in mind, many businesses also use Burst because they can securely share and post their media to many sites, including corporate, enterprise and Facebook pages.

Images courtesy of Flickr, mattkrause1969 and Burst