#PONCHO WEATHERCAT COMMANDS SERIES#

Throughout 2016 we heard a lot about chatbots and that apps will no longer be the way we interact with digital services in the future (this will open in a new window). So, what went wrong? Does this mean the chatbot trend is over before it really got going? What about the companies that have already invested? Surely there are some bots that are worth our time? Where did it all go wrong? Chatbots would be able to replace human interaction, replying to customer service queries in a conversation-like fashion via messaging apps, effectively cutting down on human resources and in turn, business costs.īut, when in February this year Facebook announced it was scaling back on its bots, some were left thinking that in reality, they maybe hadn’t really lived up to their hype? Today, I want to explore how successful they have been and provide a few examples in situ.

More specifically we’ve seen why brands are using them as a way of scaling one-on-one conversations directly with their users through chatbots.

#PONCHO WEATHERCAT COMMANDS SERIES#

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.Throughout our blog series (read part one and part two) on conversational interfaces, we’ve looked at the rapid growth of instant messaging how the interfaces work and touched on why brands are adopting them.

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.

Poncho weathercat commands