Others complained that Poncho could only respond to a few simple commands, and that it became confused quickly.Īfter having the chatbot live for a few weeks, Mr. Mandel said the startup has learned many lessons about what users want. WA thorne TX BERKS how ROSEAU yelp Mineral qpid first up multiple. This led his team to simplify the onboarding process, where Poncho asks for location and what time people would like their weather alerts. The company also noticed there is a subset of chatbot users that engage with Poncho for up to 15 to 20 minutes at a clip. Mandel said that has taught the company that the experience needs to be more gamified. Mandel said the company is still experimenting with monetization. The company has used sponsored content previously. “We want to be cautious, and I know Facebook wants to be cautious also,” Mr. Mandel said of monetizing the app.Įric Hippeau, a partner at Lerer Hippeau Ventures, said his firm has a history of investing in new media companies, such as Huffington Post and BuzzFeed. “We particularly like to invest in media companies when there’s a turn in technology,” Mr. After launching as a bot for Facebook Messenger earlier this month, weathercat picks up some cashĮditor's Note: Our annual Vator Splash Spring 2016 conference is around the corner on at the historic Scottish Rite Center in Oakland.“We’re seeing a sharp move toward live content.”īroadway Video Ventures, Ore Ventures, David Shen and former Wall Street Journal executives Gordon Crovitz, Craig Forman andĬopyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Speakers include Nigel Eccles (CEO & Co-founder, FanDuel), Andy Dunn (Founder & CEO, Bonobos), Mitch Kapor (Founder, Kapor Center for Social Impact) Founders of NextDoor, Handy, TubeMogul, TaskEasy Investors from Khosla Ventures, Javelin Venture Partners, Kapor Capital, Greylock, DFJ, IDG, IVP and more. Poncho, the precious orange "weathercat" bot developed by betaworks, announced today that it has raised a $2 million seed round of funding led by Lerer Hippeau Ventures with participation from Greycroft Partners, Comcast Ventures LP, Venture51 Capital Partners, and RRE Ventures.Īlso participating in the round is Poncho's creator betaworks, a New York City startup studio and seed stage venture capital firm that not only builds and invests in products, but has also acquired and relaunched them. ![]() In July 2012, for example, the firm purchased social news aggregator Digg for a reported $500,000. ![]() ![]() I joke about Yo, but mentioning it gives an idea of what the team behind Poncho is all about: “thin content.” Companies it has invested in include Everlane, GroupMe, Kickstarter, Medium, Path, Stocktwits, TweetDeck, Venmo, and (quite possibly the greatest Silicon Valley technology of all time) Yo.Ī year later, it purchased bookmarking tool and news reader Instapaper from the app’s original creator, Marco Arment.īetaworks also makes seed investments (typically between $100K and $200K). Most companies in the business of content would balk at the idea that their content is “thin,” but for Poncho it’s a key differentiating factor. The company believes that this quick, light content, when provided on-demand and personalized to the needs of the consumer, can be just as valuable as what you might call “thick content.” There’s something to this.
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