HelloWoofy.com operates the Woofy platform, which helps better manage social media experiences. The company also has launched a crowdfunding campaign on Republic. The minimum to invest in HelloWoofy.com is $100.
The founder and CEO Arjun Rai launched the business in late 2016. He got the idea for HelloWoofy.com from his experiences with other startups that had difficulties with their social media.
They did not have the budgets for a top agency or in-house staff. As a result, the strategies were usually ad hoc and subject to failure.
What to Know Before You Invest in HelloWoffy.com
Social media has rapidly become a must-have marketing channel. Not being effective on platforms like Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), TikTok, Pinterest (NYSE:PINS) and Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) can easily stunt growth.
Now it’s true there are many social media tools available on the market. But as for the Woofy platform, its focus primarily is on leveraging data science and AI (Artificial Intelligence). By doing this, there is much less need for manual processes.
This is no easy feat to pull off, though. Keep in mind that the Woofy platform has more than 109,000 lines of code. Although, using the system is straightforward – taking only three steps.
So here are some of the features (two patents have been filed to protect the core technology):
- There is a compliance engine to filter out harmful content.
- NLP (Natural Language Process) helps to provide suggestions for effective hashtags and emoji. All this is data-driven and takes less than a second.
- There is AI detection of brands and objects for more optimal hashtags.
- Woofy even has an AI-powered blog writing program!
- The system is integrated with a top social media management systems, Hootsuite. The company has a base of 18 million social media professionals.
Of course, when it comes to whether to invest in HelloWoofy.com, there needs to be some adoption of the technology. And yes, there already have been encouraging signs of traction.
Consider that there are more than 4,000 B2B customers that have been onboarded (such as advertising agencies, social media managers, influencers and small businesses). For 2020, the estimate is that sales will reach about $250,000.
A key part of the go-to-market strategy is partnerships. To this end, the company has an alliance with AppSumo, which has a base of 850,000 customers. There is also a deal with Stack Commerce (it has 500,000 customers).
The Market
The market for HelloWoofy.com definitely large. The company estimates that it will reach about $19 billion this year.
OK then, so how does it make money? The business model is based a freemium approach. That is, there is a free tier and an annual subscription (by the way, as a promotion, the paid version is at only $49 per year).
There is also an API service. And the pricing for this is according to the usage.
Invest in HelloWoofy.com?
The company has already raised $780,000 from venture capitalists and angel investors. The founder has invested $165,000 of his own money – which is certainly encouraging.
As for the crowdfunding campaign, HelloWoofy.com has raised more than $44,000 from 207 investors and the valuation is at $9 million. The company is offering a SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity) instrument. This means that the equity is allocated on a trigger event, such as an IPO or acquisition.
The investment also comes with various perks, which are based on the amount committed. For example, if you agree to $5,000, you get a shoutout from the founder on Twitter, a Woofy team member T-shirt, an investor badge on your Woofy profile and a lifetime subscription to the service.
Yet there are still considerable risks with this investment. Let’s face it, the competition is intense. There are hundreds of social media systems on the market. And while HelloWoofy.com is smart to focus on AI, this advantage is not full-proof.
So before making an investment, it’s important to do your own analysis and research.
Tom Taulli (@ttaulli) is an advisor and author of various books and online courses about technology, including Artificial Intelligence Basics, The Robotic Process Automation Handbook and Learn Python Super Fast. He is also the founder of WebIPO, which was one of the first platforms for public offerings during the 1990s. As of this writing, he did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.