The live sports-streaming service personalized for fans, Buzzer, solves the dilemma that many young sports fan face – overcoming the FOMO and the constant flipping through channels and streaming platforms to catch all their favorite games live. Buzzer’s mobile platform allows fans to set up personalized notifications that will indicate the exact moments to tune into their favorite game. Fans can easily pop into live games through their preexisting subscriptions to platforms such as YouTubeTV, ESPN+, etc, or if fans lack a subscription they can easily access the game they want through a $0.99 micropayment. Buzzer’s goal is to define a new media category, which it dubs ‘short-form’ live. Within the next six months, Buzzer plans to finish the development of its initial product, getting feedback from alpha/beta users before officially launching to the public.
AlleyWatch caught up with CEO and Founder Bo Han to learn more about Buzzer, how it plans to change the way live sports events are viewed, and the company’s recent funding round.
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
Buzzer is happy to announce its $4M Seed round, led by Lerer Hippeau and Sapphire Sport. Our cap table also includes R&R Venture Partners and Imagination Capital, as well as leaders across the sports, media, and technology industries, such as Sofi CEO Anthony Noto, former Chairman and CEO of TimeWarner, and interim CEO of the LA Clippers Richard Parsons, and former Twitter Head of Design & Research Grace Kim.
Tell us about the product or service that Buzzer offers.
Buzzer is a mobile platform for live sports personalized for fans and authenticated through existing subscriptions or micropayments. Buzzer’s mobile platform will provide a seamless user and viewing experience by aggregating sports rights and content and allowing its users to set up customized notifications. Fans have the option to either authenticate an existing subscription through Buzzer or instantaneously make a secure micropayment to buy only and exactly what they want to watch.
What inspired the start of Buzzer?
During my time at Twitter I realized that while we were successful in creating a forum for users to identify and collectively engage around key live moments in sports, there was an opportunity to help sports fans actually see the live moments they cared about. As my close friend, and Twitter Head of Sports, TJ Adeshola, likes to say, Twitter is the ultimate sports bar. What I came to notice, however, is that it’s often like being inside of that exciting sports bar, but not being able to see the TV. I wanted to create a platform that allowed our customers to watch live moments in sports, with barrier-free access, across the leagues and competitions they care about. We’ve all had those stressful personal experiences – the moments of panic where we hear about a close game, and scramble to find the nearest screen to watch the last few moments. This is what Buzzer is aiming to solve for the customer: simplifying access to ephemeral live moments in sports.
How is Buzzer different?
There is an unfortunate reality of a generational gap impacting the consumption of sports, while sports itself is intergenerational. You have the older generation still watching live games on TV, while the majority of Gen Z and Millennials purely consume highlights & clips on platforms like Twitter and Instagram. Buzzer is a product built around an incremental sports right that sits between long-form live linear and short-form near-live clips – we’ve coined this new format, ‘short-form live.’ Focusing on short-form live, allows us to help our partners reach an incremental audience of Gen Z and Millennial sports fans, where they are – on mobile, in real-time. If we solve for the incremental customer, the broader sports ecosystem will be healthier, and if the ecosystem is healthier, everyone wins – leagues, networks, MVPD/vMVPDs, and OTT platforms.
What market does Buzzer target and how big is it?
Buzzer’s target demographic is the “NextGen Fan”, a casual or active sports fan who leverages digital technologies to remove barriers to content discovery and frequently opts for short-form content to satisfy their evolving interests.
Many of these NextGen Fans are Gen Z or Millennials, who are less likely to have a traditional cable subscription and more likely to resort to commoditized clips.
We are focused on advancing the existing sports media ecosystem and enhancing the value for existing rightsholders – whether it is the leagues or networks. The opportunity to define a new media category in ‘short-form’ live (that will sit in between long-form live and short-form clips & highlights) will not only benefit Buzzer, but also the leagues, networks, OTTs, MVPDs, etc. who partner with us in maximizing the reach of their rights.
What’s your business model?
Buzzer, and its partnering sports media rights-holders, will make money through a revenue share of customer microtransactions on “lightning in a bottle” moments. It’s a win-win solution for Buzzer and its partners, as Buzzer is capturing the engagement of Gen Z and Millennial sports fans and driving viewership to leagues and networks who are challenged by this generation’s evolving consumption trends. Over time, frequent microtransactions to view live moments for a particular league will justify the economics of a subscription to watch longer-form content, which may drive the customer to subscribe to an over-the-top subscription. In this case, Buzzer serves as a lead generation tool for a net new audience and will take a percentage of the subscription-driven as part of a traditional affiliate model.
Beyond the business model for scaling the Buzzer product, we have intentionally defined our public commitment to be progressive as a company, the Strive Initiative. The Strive Initiative is a vehicle for Buzzer to drive positive change and outcomes in society through our 1x1x1 strategy: 1% of the company, 1% of net profits, and an invitation for customers to donate 1% of each transaction to a partnering organization. These contributions will be dedicated to investing in equitable outcomes for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. Buzzer is dedicated to leveling the playing field through our company’s mission, values, product, and financial tools in order to create more opportunities for underserved and underinvested communities.
How has COVID-19 impacted the business?
We started this company when there were no live sports. It has given us both the time and flexibility to be immensely thoughtful about how we build products that complement unique challenges faced by potential partners in the sports media ecosystem. Each partner has been profoundly impacted by the pandemic in their own way. We have a responsibility as an industry advancer to develop complementary solutions to fill gaps that our partners have identified – whether it be generational gaps in consumption of live sports, the net decrease of pay-TV subscribers, or the challenges of growing subscription-based products in an already crowded market. Our vision is to build bridges, not another island. We want to work across the ecosystem to make it healthier by unifying the live sports viewing experience – whether it be in complementing the TV audience or extending the digital one.
In addition to impacting the broader market and our commitments to enhance the industry, COVID-19 also had an impact on our hiring strategies. As a leader with a unique opportunity to invest in people when many companies were being asked to downsize, I made a conscious effort to focus on individuals who had been directly impacted by the pandemic. 12 of our 16 teammates were hired from a pipeline of talented folks who had been laid off, had their internships rescinded, or were enrolled in MBA programs that were uncertain. It has had an immeasurable impact on our culture, which is one of gratitude and social responsibility.
What was the funding process like?
I know this is extremely rare, but the funding process was surprisingly very seamless for me. I’ve been incredibly fortunate to have a network of mentors and friends who were very immediately supportive when I decided to start my own company. Everyone was so generous with their time and offered any introductions in their immediate network that made sense.
I will say one of the best advice I can give is to find your one champion to anchor that fundraising process around that champion.
What are the biggest challenges that you faced while raising capital?
When COVID-19 became a reality earlier this year, I actually offered to give the money back to our investors just as the deal was closing given the uncertainty of the world. I sent a note to all of our investors offering to size down or give back any committed investments. I just felt it was the right thing to do. Of the $4M, we ended up seeing only a $25K investment drop-off in total, with the majority of our investors actually offering to size up their commitments.
When COVID-19 became a reality earlier this year, I actually offered to give the money back to our investors just as the deal was closing given the uncertainty of the world. I sent a note to all of our investors offering to size down or give back any committed investments. I just felt it was the right thing to do.
What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
I think it was a combination between my unique background and experience around licensing live sports rights, and the relationships cultivated over the years, a comprehensive understanding of the nuances in the sports landscape and the complementary solution to the industry, and a clear vision for the product need and consumer solution.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
Success in the next six months will be defined in achievements across three priority areas: product, partnerships, and people. From a product perspective, we will focus our efforts on collecting feedback from users on our alpha/beta, and then introduce the Buzzer product to customers at large. From a partnerships perspective, we aim to strategically align with key players in the sports media ecosystem to build a product that drives a net new audience, a new monetization stream, and value to media rightsholders. From a people perspective, we are hyper-focused on enriching our team culture to be inclusive, empathetic, and representative of a great place to work.
What advice can you offer companies in New York that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
In reflecting on the growth of Buzzer thus far, we felt it important to share our learnings with other entrepreneurs. We recommend taking the leap of faith to start something new during such a challenging time, but not for the reasons you’ve likely read about thus far.
In reflecting on the growth of Buzzer thus far, we felt it important to share our learnings with other entrepreneurs. We recommend taking the leap of faith to start something new during such a challenging time, but not for the reasons you’ve likely read about thus far.
Times of crisis can be a time to pause and reflect.
What has worked in the past may no longer serve you, your customer, or the broader industry that you aspire to contribute to.
There is a ton of advice out there about a crisis being the perfect time to disrupt and innovate by finding a gap in the market. While this may be true, we encourage you to evaluate the gap you have found and identify if your product or service could help suture the wounds caused in a crisis to support legacy players and the overall ecosystem.
Allow this economic crisis and powerful time for social movement to encourage thoughtfulness; not just in the product, but in the formation of the company, its values, the culture you create, the team, and even the investments you choose to take or forgo. Identify opportunities to create pipelines of talent for underrepresented communities before you grow too large and too quickly. A culture is created on Day 1, and retroactive reversal of norms and practices will detract from the authenticity of your mission and product goals.
We won’t pretend to have all the answers, and we acknowledge that we are very much a work-in-progress. Nonetheless, we are proud of the company we have built to date and hope to inspire other entrepreneurs and teams facing the very real challenges of building a company amidst the current economic and social climate; and arm them with our playbook thus far.
What’s your favorite outdoor dining restaurant in NYC
Mimi Cheng’s, Cote, and Lilia.
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