Why we invested in Howitzer
With over 400 million active monthly users, Reddit is one of the largest social networks in the world. In stark contrast to most gigantic networking sites, Reddit content and activities are organized around shared interests rather than bathroom selfies and restaurant check-ins. Whether you are interested in molecular gastronomy, weightlifting or crypto arbitrage opportunities, chances are you can find curated and up-to-date information in respective subreddits, as well as get connected to people from all over the world interested in the same thing as you.
In short, Reddit is the biggest aggregator of online communities and topic-based information sharing. Marketers and builders are already using Reddit but are considerably constrained by manual outreach, as current on-platform and third-party tools fall short of providing them meaningful support.
While traditional online ads are becoming more expensive and less effective due to ad fatigue and using blockers, Howitzer shows a fresh way to reach audiences in a personalized and authentic way at scale. Using Reddit metadata, the algorithm understands which users are part of your potential audience, extracts them and sets up personalized direct message campaigns.
The key here is targeting: seeing the activity of a user across different subreddits, Howitzer gives you a clear idea of the needs and wants of your users. It can match them with relevant queries of marketers, thus creating a win-win situation. This results in a staggering 40% response rate for Howitzer customers, which is over a magnitude better than a typical targeted cold email campaign languishing with only 3%. This means the current 1.0 version of Howitzer is already exceptional at delivering your marketing message to all the right people.
We are at an inflection point where internet users are becoming internet citizens who are ever more mindful of their information consumption, and old ways of pushing products are just not cutting it anymore. There is a new internet economy emerging in the roaring twenties of this century where relevance is the primary driver of successful content. In this shift, there is an emerging need for new tools to reach audiences effectively.
We are delighted to partner with Nikola, Stefan and Tomi from Howitzer, leading their pre-seed round. Together we aim to widen the capabilities of the platform and address further underutilized social networks, such as Twitter and Discord, making Howitzer a cross-platform powerhouse of direct outreach.
