Mona Reeder / Dallas Morning NewsThe newest venture for Todd Wagner, a Dallas entrepreneur, is Chideo, a digital video platform for exclusive content for celebrities to share and connect while raising money for charity.

Todd Wagner wants to catch lightning in a bottle again.

He and Mark Cuban took Broadcast.com from a startup in 1995 to a $5.7 billion buyout by Yahoo four years later. It was the first broadcast network on the Internet.

Now Wagner is working harder than ever to create something equally dramatic with his newest venture. But this time, the good fortune is going to good causes.

The 53-year-old billionaire hopes to generate hundreds of millions of dollars for charities with his just-launched website called Chideo. It’s an interactive broadcast network featuring exclusive content by celebrities who want to promote their favorite nonprofits.

The name comes from mashing up the words charity and video. And the project is the only thing challenging enough to jolt Wagner back into the daily grind.

“Our goal is big and bold,” Wagner said in Chideo’s offices in Dallas. “It’s a heavy lift. But it became clear to me that if it was going to have any chance to succeed, I was going to have to go at it 100 percent.”

If you want to see exclusive videos of Oscar nominee Bradley Cooper, rock band Linkin Park, golfing legend Annika Sorenstam, best-selling author Nicholas Sparks and 90 other celebrities, you have to kick in a couple of bucks to support his or her favorite charity.

The celebrities get to raise money while building stronger bonds with their fans.

Rainn Wilson, who played Dwight Schrute on the TV comedy “The Office,” said he joined Chideo “because it’s a simple, slam-dunk idea. Share a video with fans and help raise money for a great cause. What’s not to like?”

His cause is the Mona Foundation, which supports educational initiatives for girls across the globe.

The charities receive 80 cents of every dollar raised on the network. Chideo gets 20 cents to build, operate and support the system with technology, marketing, promotions, sales and creative production.

“When you aggregate this many famous people and this many charities, big things can happen,” Wagner said. “We learned that with Broadcast. This has that very real possibility of doing the same thing.”

But it probably won’t help his bank account.

In the past 18 months, Wagner has sunk millions of dollars into Chideo, which launched Jan. 28. He’ll spend millions more before traffic to the site kicks in and revenue starts to flow from video-on-demand, donations, commercials, sponsorships, sweepstakes and syndication.

His long-term goal is to break even.

“It’s an awful business model. I’ll be the first to admit that,” Wagner said. “No business gives away 80 percent of its revenue. That’s crazy. But I’m in a very different place in my life. It’s OK. I’m going to be all right. This is my way to give back.”

Ask most people who Mark Cuban’s business partner is, and they wouldn’t know that the Dallas Mavericks owner had one, much less his name. Yet Wagner and Cuban have been joined at the hip in business for 19 years, since they launched the Internet video-streaming company that became Broadcast.com.

Today they co-own 2929 Entertainment, and Wagner is its CEO.

“What I love about Todd, beyond his heart and the fact that he is just a really, really good guy, is his ability to connect to people,” Cuban said. “While I’m always going 200 miles an hour, Todd is going to make sure he sits and connects to you, which is why he and Chideo are such a great match. He is taking tech, celebrity and matching it with charity. And it’s been powerful and successful.”

In 2011, Wagner was looking for his next change-the-world thing.

He thought about running for U.S. senator but decided that being a junior senator from Texas or Florida, where he has homes, wasn’t what he had in mind.

“You can’t move the needle as a first-term senator,” Wagner said. “You can’t effect change unless you become a lifetime politician, which I had no interest in.”

In May 2012, Wagner held his first and last fundraiser to support After-School All-Stars, the Kipp Charter Schools and the Boys & Girls Clubs. He rented out Cowboys Stadium, hired ZZ Top and wrangled celebrities to hobnob with 450 attendees.

The event raised $1.1 million for the three charities, but only because Wagner’s foundation underwrote the entire half-million dollars in expenses.

“It was an eye-opener,” Wagner said. “That’s the dirty little secret. Only 20 cents, 30 cents, 40 cents, maybe 50 cents of a dollar, if you’re lucky, actually goes to the cause. I’m all for having a big party. But let’s not call it a fundraiser.”

It bugs him that only 8 percent of charitable giving is contributed online.

“If Jeff Bezos could change retail with Amazon, why has charitable giving not changed?” Wagner asked. “I would argue it’s because it’s an industry that’s filled with people who are comfortable with the system and don’t want change.”

He wants to shake, rattle and roll them. And he has the connections to do it.

Dan Rather, whose investigative news show airs on 2929 Entertainment’s AXS TV, sits on Chideo’s advisory board.

“Todd told me (Chideo) was the most important thing he’d ever done. And frankly, that was enough for me,” Rather said. “When Todd gets focused, it’s a laser beam.”

Roxanne Spillett, former CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, is another board member.

“I believe in Todd and the power of the idea,” said Spillett, who has worked with Wagner for 15 years. “I’ve been in the nonprofit business forever. I don’t ever recall a donor who was as committed as Todd, as genuine, authentic, sincere. This is one that can change the world for the better.”

Chideo has 40 staffers in Dallas and Los Angeles building the website, filming celebrity videos and signing up sponsors.

At Broadcast.com, 300 employees became tagalong millionaires with Cuban and Wagner. One of those, Marc Montoya, is Chideo’s senior vice president of sales.

“I really believe this can be a game changer in the way people give to charities. That’s why I’m here,” said Montoya, who is working to sell Chideo content to broadcasters, TV and radio stations.

Chideo celebrities have a combined social media reach of about 250 million people, Wagner said. “I wouldn’t have attempted this five years ago. The problem of creating awareness would have been insurmountable. But now we have the ability to reach people through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and everything else that’s out there.”

Linkin Park might premiere two songs on Chideo before releasing them. Money generated would go to the rock band’s cause, Music for Relief, which aids survivors of natural disasters.

“These guys have 60 million Facebook fans,” Wagner said. “If you could get just a smidgen of that fan base, you could raise a million, 2 million, 3 million dollars, and Linkin Park would never have to leave their studio.”

Linkin Park vocalist Mike Shinoda didn’t need arm twisting. “When I first heard about Chideo, I knew it was something special,” he said. “We have an amazing relationship with our fans, so the idea that we could give them insider access and together support an amazing cause was really powerful.”