Press Release
SayNow Launches Service for Celebrities to Connect with their Audience Over the Phone: Company Secures Series A Financing Led by Shasta Ventures Totaling $7.5 Million
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
PALO ALTO, CA - (BUSINESS WIRE) - September 11, 2007 - SayNow, a leading provider of phone-based communities, announced its initial customers and its Series A round of financing. SayNow's service enables celebrities to connect with their audience by sending and receiving voice and text messages. In addition, the company has secured Series A financing to date totaling $7.5 million led by Shasta Ventures. Rob Coneybeer managing director of Shasta Ventures will join the board of directors with the co-founders, Nikhyl Singhal, CEO and Ujjwal Singh, CTO. Tugboat Ventures' Dave Whorton, a SayNow advisor since early 2006, also participated in the round as did Costella Kirsch. To date, SayNow's communities have generated over 900,000 phone-based subscribers.
SayNow began trials in July 2006 and quickly gained traction with the music industry, spanning several genres including Hip-Hop, R&B, Rock/Pop, and Country. Artists using SayNow include Foo Fighters, Mario, Hurricane Chris, MIMS, Tila Tequila, Huey, T-Pain, Bobby Valentino, Papa Roach, Jonas Brothers, The Rocket Summer, Kenny Chesney, and Chris Young.
To get started, SayNow assigns a phone number to a celebrity. By just mentioning a phone number at an appearance, a celebrity can pick up tens of thousands of their most loyal fans instantly. The celebrity can record voice messages for his or her fans, send text messages, poll their audience, or even call a fan right from their own phone. When a fan calls the phone number, they instantly hear voice messages from the artist and are subscribed to their phone community. The service is free for everyone - SayNow generates money by revenue sharing the advertising and the leads that are generated from the community.
"No form of communication conveys emotion better than voice. It makes a fan's day to hear their favorite celebrity talking to them out of their phone. And everyone can tell by the sound of their voice that it's really them. In the age of email and blogging, emotion and authenticity has been lost and SayNow attempts to bring this back," said Rob Coneybeer.
"Unlike the web, people block out the world when interacting with their phone. SayNow taps into this 'lean-in experience' and cuts through the clutter, which is exciting to our artists and advertising partners," said Nikhyl Singhal, CEO and co-founder of SayNow. "Many of our artists make money each time they message their fans, and as the mobile market matures, their checks will only increase."
The most successful music labels represent many of SayNow's artists. These include Zomba Label Group, RCA Music Group, Sony BMG Nashville, Universal Music Group (Def Jam Recordings, Island Records), EMI (Capitol Music Group), Hollywood Records, and TVT Records.
Funding will be used to accommodate traffic and growth, as well as expand SayNow's presence beyond music to other communities such as television shows, sports teams and athletes, and politicians.
About SayNow
SayNow delivers voice and text services that are used by entertainers, politicians and community leaders to communicate with their fans. SayNow gives celebrities a phone number that fans can call to hear their latest voice messages, take part in polls, send messages, and even buy things with a press of a button. SayNow unique blend of group phone communication began with musicians, but is expanding to other markets including sports, television, and politics. SayNow was founded in November 2005 and is funded by Shasta Ventures and Tugboat Ventures.
Press Contacts
Jennifer Bond (530) 515-4225
Lisa Tarter (415) 440-4278
Tidal Wave PR
Email: pr@saynow.com