{"id":7815,"date":"2017-08-02T17:18:55","date_gmt":"2017-08-02T17:18:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rsoftsolution.com\/blog\/hustle-scores-8m-to-kill-telemarketing-with-personalized-texts.html"},"modified":"2017-08-02T17:18:55","modified_gmt":"2017-08-02T17:18:55","slug":"hustle-scores-8m-to-kill-telemarketing-with-personalized-texts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rbsitsoftwaresolution.in\/blog\/hustle-scores-8m-to-kill-telemarketing-with-personalized-texts.html","title":{"rendered":"Hustle scores $8M to kill telemarketing with personalized texts"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

No one picks up the phone and everyone gets too much email. If you want to contact people for fundraising, a political campaign, or marketing, texting is the way to go. But a generic mass text is more like spam than a convincing conversation.<\/p>\n

Hustle<\/a> lets you personalize every message and turn it into persuasive one-on-one dialogue. Like CRM for SMS, organizers can assign lists of contacts to their reps and field agents, who text them from their own numbers and cajole them to get down with the cause.<\/p>\n

The potential to revolutionize both grassroots activism and corporate sales has won Hustle a new $8 million Series A<\/a> led by existing investor Social Capital, whose founder Chamath Palihapitiya sits on Hustle\u2019s board. That brings Hustle to over $11 million in funding<\/a> to take the lessons it learned as Bernie Sanders\u2019 texting tool for the 2016 presidential election, and bring it to all kinds of organizations.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Co-founder Roddy Lindsay explains that \u201cPeople don\u2019t pick up the phone as much any more. Having a one-on-one conversation on text is the best way to get people to participate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lindsay is well versed on measuring what engages people. For six years he worked as one of Facebook\u2019s first data scientists. His penchant for politics shone through, as Lindsay helped run Facebook\u2019s congressional hackathon on Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n

In 2014, Lindsay hooked up with former Obama \u201908 Nevada new media director Perry Rosenstein to form Hustle. [Disclosure: Rosenstein and I were two of the co-founders of a social meetup utility called Signal that shut down before Hustle\u2019s creation.] They set out to build a communication tool that combined the intimacy and ability to compel action of phone calling or door-knocking with the affordability and scalability of text messaging.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how Hustle works<\/a>. Organizers build a phone number database, and write script templates on Hustle\u2019s desktop app for the messages they want to send out. Their volunteers or representatives get assigned groups of contacts to ping through Hustle\u2019s app, which automatically fills in variables in the scripts like the recipient\u2019s name or how they got involved. The reps can rapidly send these message via their own phone numbers, and reply like normal to answer questions or coax them into participation.<\/p>\n

As respondents agree or decline to pledge money, show up to an event, volunteer, or buy something, reps can mark their progress in Hustle\u2019s analytics dashboard that tracks who they\u2019ve contacted. And now Hustle is forging partnerships with payment processors and CRM systems to automatically track when recipients take action. Clients pay Hustle a monthly fee per contact in their database, starting at $0.30 per person.<\/p>\n

While Hustle launched with a focus on politics, Lindsay says \u201cWe\u2019re starting to do a lot of stuff beyond campaigns and advocacy. Higher education is a big growth area for us.\u201d Now 30 schools are using Hustle for fundraising like soliciting alumni donations without annoying phone calls. Amherst was able double participation in its young alumni fundraiser from 10% to 21% using Hustle.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hustle co-founders (from left): Roddy Lindsay, Tyler Brock, and Perry Rosenstein<\/p>\n

Those contracts have driven Hustle\u2019s 40-person team to a $3 million annual recurring revenue runrate. And now Hustle has $8 million more to spend on accelerating growth. Joining Social Capital in the Series A are\u00a0Canvas Ventures, Designer Fund, Foundation Capital, GSV Acceleration, Higher Ground Labs, Index Ventures, Kapor Capital, Matrix Partners, New Media Ventures, Omidyar Network,\u00a0Twilio.org Impact Fund, and Salesforce Ventures.<\/p>\n

That last one could provide a well-aligned exit opportunity one day that could give Salesforce the same grip on text that its CRM has on email. \u201cPeople respond to other people in a fundamentally different way than they respond to automated communication and bots\u201d Lindsay proclaims.<\/p>\n

The cash will go first to building out Hustle\u2019s platform and API so it can do more conversion tracking. That way \u201cIf they say they\u2019re\u00a0going to give but haven\u2019t yet, you can follow up\u201d says Lindsay. Hustle will also build out its sales and marketing teams for different verticals, growing its San Francisco, New York, and DC offices. Its engineering team will grow too as it continues to support its iOS, Android, web, and API surfaces.<\/p>\n

Of course, for all of texting\u2019s influence, it\u2019s still only a piece of the communications puzzle. Hustle will need to develop ways to mesh better with the rest of an organization\u2019s outreach strategy. And it will have to fend off clones trying to undercut its pricing. Hillary Clinton\u2019s campaign developed its own version called MegaPhone rather than pay for Hustle.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the issue that some people will still see Hustle\u2019s texts as spam even if they\u2019re sent by a real person from a real number. The startup may need to set frequency limits or usage restrictions to prevent clients from abusing Hustle.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Most startups stay away from polarizing politics that could limit their business, but Hustle refused to stay neutral. \u201cWe\u2019re focused on building a strong business supporting clients in the Democratic party and progressive movement, and expanding into markets like Higher Ed and relationship-driven enterprises\u201d Lindsay says.<\/p>\n

\"\"Supporting causes on both sides of the aisle could have gotten contentious, so Hustle chose the left. When ask if it refuses conservative clients, Lindsay admits that \u201cIf a potential client would violate our core values of Authenticity, Empowerment, Impact, and Respect, or erode the trust that our existing clients put in us, we would politely turn them away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hustle is the kind of tech the world will need to claw back government from blustering leaders who exploit fear to divide people. Lindsay says Hustle wants\u00a0\u201cto make people feel like participants in the system and not just observers.\u201d Motivated grassroots organizations can use Hustle to leverage the passion you see seething on Twitter into actual progress.<\/p>\n

But that can\u2019t wait until 2019. \u201cVoter communication isn\u2019t something you just need to do 30 days before the election\u201d Lindsay concludes. Whether it\u2019s a campaign or a donation drive, people need to feel like there\u2019s a person on the other end rooting them on like a personal trainer. Hustle conveniently puts that trainer in people\u2019s text inbox.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Article source: http:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/techcrunch\/social\/~3\/oSJ_thrGnpw\/<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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