Remember the Web series Lonelygirl15? Protagonist “Bree” might have gotten killed off, but the team that created her wants to go places. On Thursday, Lonelygirl15 brains Miles Beckett and Greg Goodfried–who also created a British spin-off called KateModern–announced the launch of their new “social entertainment” production company, Eqal. Previously, their company’s name had been a bit more of a mouthful: LG15 Studios/Telegraph Ave. Productions. Along with its debut, Eqal has announced $5 million in Series A venture funding in a round led by Spark Capital, with contributions from notable investors, including Silicon Valley veteran Ron Conway and serial entrepreneur Marc Andreessen.

Pronounced “equal,” Eqal aims to work with both independent content creators and big media companies to produce “shows where the community built around the property is as important as the characters within it.” Indeed, Lonelygirl15 gained a massive cult following on YouTube and MySpace.com, due in part to the fact that many viewers were convinced that ‘Bree’ was a real 16-year-old video blogger. Bree was outed as actress Jessica Rose in September 2006, but the show continued; Beckett and Goodfried went on to debut KateModern on social network Bebo.

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