• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, September 8, 2009

Next New Networks will launch a video series Tuesday on the American Express OPEN Forum that showcases the entrepreneurial spirit of small businesses.

Small Business Rules will feature small businesses from around the country. American Express OPEN Forum is sponsoring the project. Lindsay Campbell, who became best-known for hosting the business and finance video podcast Wallstrip, will host the show.

Small Business Rules is about the spirit of entrepreneurship. It aims to capture the stories of each company's unique and inspiring tale. The show will air one video weekly. The first on the schedule to run include Thrillist, a popular email newsletter that originated in New York, and Gotham Dream Cars, a start-up specializing in high-end cars, such as Ferrari.

The Gotham Dream Cars segment tells the tale of how the founders took their passion for driving and exotic cars, such as Ferrari, and built it into a thriving business. The New York-based company, with $2.9 million in annual revenue, has 10 employees.

Gotham Dream Cars, which offers a variety luxury models to rent for a day, is the brainchild of Noah Lehmann-Haupt. Since launching the company in 2003, it has done about 2,600 rentals.

Tim Shey, cofounder and executive vice president of audience development at Next New Networks, says the show will debut on OPEN Forum, but will become available on other devices, such as the iPhone.

The video network will rely on Twitter, Facebook and other social networks to promote the series. "The goal is to build a discussion around the show," he says. "The business profiled in the video may talk about investing money, so we will throw it back to the viewing audience to ask other small business owners what they do. It's all about business rules."

Next New Networks has been searching multiple cities across the United States to find businesses to profile, but will also take nominations on the site.

American Express OPEN Forum in July revealed plans to introduce video content from the Next New Networks and BigThink. The two video networks will provide guidance to small business owners through streaming video.

Next New Networks is TV for the Internet. The company creates, packages, brands, markets and syndicates some of the Web's most popular regularly scheduled and episodic programming. Since its inception in March 2007, the company has launched sixteen networks, and its programming has been viewed more than 400 million times.

Metadata for each video follows a formula, which Shey says will allow search engine crawlers to pick up the content more easily.