setting the scene
it’s Valentine’s Day, and you meet the perfect date on Hinge ❤️
after texting back and forth to finalize a location, you send a Calendly link for your date to pick a time
days go by with no calendar invite, and you follow up over text to find that your number is blocked 😳
perhaps the Calendly was too corporate for Valentine’s Day drinks 😐
this week’s company provides a social calendar that helps people make plans and find when friends are available
in a sentence
Somewhere Somehow is a social calendar platform that enables users to share time-based content and see when friends are available
social: scroll through a feed to see what others are up to at specific times
content: integrate Google Calendar, Spotify, photos, location, and more to autogenerate content throughout the day
available: select a time or friend’s profile to see when others are free
bulleted version: Somewhere Somehow combines Google’s shared calendar feature with BeReal.’s time-based, authentic posting to allow users to make plans and share their happenings 📅
the basics
industry: social media, productivity tool
headquarters: New York, NY 🍎
year founded: 2021
company size: 3 employees 💼
investors: not disclosed; closing pre-seed round (80% committed)❗️
amount raised: bootstrapped 🚀
business model: b2b marketplace, freemium
sponsored by
Mercury is flipping the script on business banking
despite being an instrumental pillar of starting and scaling a company, traditional banking has never catered to founders’ unique needs
that’s why Mercury’s founders decided to create a new standard for business banking with a platform that fuels founders and their finance teams with exactly what they need (and nothing they don’t)
manage FDIC-insured accounts, send money seamlessly, grow with alternative financing, and more – all online, all with confidence
try their demo to see why more than 100k startups across industries, stages, business types choose Mercury to help them build the next great companies
Mercury is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group and Evolve Bank & Trust®️; Members FDIC.
due diligence
what we like
📈 next-gen social: in a new era of social media, Gen Zers prefer platforms that encourage authentic interactions with close connections
🗓 disrupting the calendar: the calendar scheduling market is projected to grow 15.4% each year through 2027 as individuals flock to online calendars to organize their work and personal lives
Somewhere Somehow avoids transactional calendar invites by enabling users to see friends’ availability
🎓 college campuses: the company has used connections across 100+ campuses to test the product, conduct user interviews, guide product development, and spread by word-of-mouth
potential risks
🔒 privacy: while Somewhere Somehow has a comprehensive privacy policy, will users have concerns about posting their day-to-day schedules on the platform?
🗣 brand communication: Somewhere Somehow must clearly and concisely communicate the brand to build a memorable product and create an early network effect
🔁 similar attempts: Google and other startups have tried and failed to rethink how people make plans
weekly cartoon
founder profiles
Alexandra Debow (student @ NYU, co-founder @ EntrepreNUers Network)
Weilyn Chong (student @ Princeton, board member @ Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center, co-founder @ EntrepreNUers Network)
Nathan Ahn (student @ Yale)
comps
why Somewhere Somehow: with 400 social plans made in the beta app and acceptance into competitive accelerators, this startup is going somewhere 📈
bulletin board
🥯 event info: on 2/22, we’re co-hosting the NYC Tech Breakfast Club with VC super connectors Morgan Barrett (Lowenstein) and Ariel Purnsrian (investor/founder of Startup Café)
RSVP and join 150+ founders, operators, and investors already registered
🌟 company updates: Zette, a 2022 bulletpitch company of the year, officially launched its product to the public
try Zette for free to unlock paywalled articles
💞 Valentine’s Day: check out this season of the Land of the Giants podcast, which explores the evolution of the multi-billion dollar dating industry
what do you think of Somewhere Somehow?tell us what you think! |