setting the scene
- your family, friends, and co-workers send you several articles a week from various news publications 📰
- since you don’t subscribe to every online news source, you’re often met with the message: “subscribe to access the rest of this article” 🔒
- your options are to pay for all these publications or pretend to have read the daily articles from your mom and boss 😳
- this week’s company provides a tool to access premium articles without subscribing to a dozen publications ✔️
in a sentence
Zette offers consumers access to paywalled news articles through a single paid account
- access: users download a browser extension that pops up when a paywall shows up
- paywalled: a feature used by news sites that limits access to paying customers
- account: users pay a monthly subscription for access to 30 paywalled articles each month
bulleted version: think of Zette as an all-you-can-eat news buffet; for a monthly subscription, you can fill your plate with articles from Forbes, Miami Herald, and any other publication you fancy 🍽
the basics
- industry: media tech, news and entertainment, browser extension, software
- headquarters: San Francisco, CA 🌁
- year founded: 2020
- company size: <10 employees 💼
- investors: Afore Capital, Halogen Ventures, Hyphen Capital, The Community Fund, MGV Capital, Exponential Impact, Jay Kim, Jeffrey Lee
- amount raised: $1.7m post pre-seed funding
- business model: b2c; rev share with newsrooms
sponsored by
due diligence
what we like
- 📈 a gap in the market: companies implement paywalls in hopes of converting readers to paying customers, but conversion rates have historically been low
- Zette adds an alternative revenue source and customer touchpoint for players in the growing $35b digital news market
- Zette adds an alternative revenue source and customer touchpoint for players in the growing $35b digital news market
- 🌎 well-rounded perspective: Zette encourages readers to sample credible articles from a variety of news sources, attacking misinformation and promoting quality news
- 🏙 consolidated clients: with frequent consolidation in the media market, Zette can offer customers hundreds of publications with the right few partners
- for example, Zette closed a deal with McClatchy, an owner of 30+ newspapers
potential risks
- 🤝 publisher-reliant: Zette must continue to close deals with publishing companies to keep users on the platform and cater to a wide audience
- 💻 desktop-first: mobile devices have become the preferred way to consume news
- 🤳 the rise of modern media: the creator economy has introduced new ways to consume reliable news; will Zette include paid newsletters and video channels in its news offerings?
weekly cartoon
founder profiles
- Yehong Zhu (CEO; also angel investor; prev. @ Twitter, Forbes)
comps
why Zette: Zette is already making headlines with over 80 publication partners and a 6k-person waitlist growing 25% month-over-month 🚀
what do you think about this startup?we want to hear from you! |