Participated · Seed · Oct 2020

The Juggernaut produces analysis and feature reporting for the South Asian diaspora; it was started by Snigdha Sur in October 2017. The outlet uses a networked contributor model with more than 100 contributors and a small full-time team of three. Its product mix includes a free newsletter, a seven-day free trial, and paid subscriptions priced at $3.99/month (annual), $9.99/month (monthly) and a $249.99 lifetime option; the trial converts to paid at over 80%. The Juggernaut intentionally avoids commoditized breaking news and focuses on deep, creative reporting with South Asian connections. During COVID-19 the company reported net subscriber growth of 20–30% month over month and says it has “thousands of subscribers.” The team is pacing hiring, relying on freelancers to control costs while planning to expand editorial projects.

Participated · Series A · Aug 2017

Hustle provides a MadLibs-style peer-to-peer texting app that lets staffers or volunteers send personalized text messages one at a time and manage responses, tracking conversions and optimizing scripts. The company cites strong operating metrics: it 20x’d its annual revenue run rate in 15 months, claims 85 million conversations started, and reports a run rate of well over $10 million. Clients pay about $0.30 per contact uploaded, and Hustle cites customers including LiveNation, NYU, and the Sierra Club; over 25 state Democratic parties use the service. The startup plans to expand beyond political and nonprofit work into alumni fundraising for universities, enterprise sales, and event promotion. Hustle has raised $41 million in total funding, employs over 100 people across San Francisco, New York City, and Washington, D.C., and was founded in late 2014. The company’s political client restrictions (declining Republican candidates) have been part of its growth strategy and brand positioning with Democratic and progressive organizations. Hustle provides a CRM-like platform for personalized, one-on-one SMS outreach, letting organizers assign contact lists and reps who text from their own numbers using templated scripts with variables. Its desktop app, mobile apps (iOS/Android) and web UI include an analytics dashboard and partnerships with payment processors and CRM systems to track conversions. The company charges clients a monthly fee per contact starting at $0.30 and reports a 40-person team with a $3M annual recurring revenue run rate. Hustle was formed by Roddy Lindsay and Perry Rosenstein in 2014 and was built from work on the 2016 Bernie Sanders campaign; it has expanded beyond politics into higher education and other relationship-driven enterprises, serving about 30 schools. Customers include Amherst, which used Hustle to raise young alumni participation from 10% to 21%. The company plans to use new capital to build out its platform and API for better conversion tracking and to grow sales, marketing, and engineering teams across San Francisco, New York, and Washington, DC. Hustle is a text-distribution platform that enables organizers to start personalized one-on-one SMS conversations with large numbers of supporters. Organizers write customized scripts, upload contacts or connect CRMs, and assign agents who use Hustle’s iOS, Android or web apps to send texts via local Twilio-powered numbers while tracking responses and RSVPs. The tool has been used by political campaigns including Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders and reached 3.95 million voters on election day. Hustle charges $0.30 monthly per contact and reported $3 million in revenue in its first year on the market. With new funding it plans to hire engineers, designers and a sales team to push into retail, hospitality and traditional nonprofits. The company also intends to build semantic analytics to identify high-converting responses and algorithmically improve scripts. Hustle operates with a roughly 12-person team and recognizes risks from carriers, closed messaging platforms, and potential spam perception.

Participated · Series C · Jan 2016

Euclid Analytics builds a location analytics platform that monitors in-store traffic by collecting encrypted MAC addresses via existing Wi-Fi systems from vendors such as Aerohive, Cisco, HP/Aruba, Meraki, Ruckus, and Xirrus. Its technology tracks shopper paths, dwell times, visit lengths, and repeat visits, then aggregates that data into reports designed to help companies improve sales, marketing, and conversion rates. The company says it is currently used by 500 brands in 65 countries and captures about seven billion data points every day. Euclid does not require additional hardware or consumer smartphone apps, which the company cites as a differentiator versus competitors including RetailNext, Locately, and Placed. The new funding will be used to acquire clients, add employees, and further build Euclid’s location analytics platform. Groupe Arnault will serve as a strategic partner to help improve Euclid’s technology and insights using its market research. The round brings Euclid’s total capital raised to $44 million. Euclid builds analytics products that track shopper traffic and behavior in physical retail locations using pre-configured sensors that detect Wi‑Fi–enabled phones and hash device MAC addresses to measure visits, dwell time and repeat visits. The company also offers Euclid Zero, a software integration with Wi‑Fi access-point vendors (Aerohive, Aruba, Fortinet, Xirrus) that removes the need for separate hardware installs. Euclid positions itself as a Google Analytics–like solution for the real world and can track customers across locations and around entrances to measure things like window-display conversion and cannibalization by nearby outlets. It reports installations in over 30 apparel chains, quick-serve restaurants, malls and other retailers and tracks over 50 million mobile devices across its customer base. The business is delivered as a SaaS product and currently has 27 employees with plans to grow headcount to 42 to expand support and its “insights team.” Product development is ongoing with more features expected in the coming months.

Participated · Equity · Oct 2014

Attentive.ly provides a SaaS platform that monitors digital behaviors and conversations across the social web to enable hyper-personal, time-sensitive marketing messages. The solution integrates with a variety of CRMs and ESPs, including Eloqua, Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign and Blackbaud Luminate. The company publicly launched a Facebook ad-targeting feature to enable more personalized marketing communications through real-time access to social media touch-points. Customers include nonprofits, e-commerce firms, publications, and PR & marketing agencies; referral partners include Hill+Knowlton and Burson-Marsteller, who provide the service to a Fortune 500 client. The company was founded and is led by CEO Roz Lemieux with Cheryl Contee and CTO Cindy Mottershead. Financially, Attentive.ly raised $750K in the reported round and has raised $2M since 2012.