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Hustle offers a peer-to-peer text messaging platform designed to facilitate scaled, personalized communication. The core product enables organizations to engage with their audience through text, calls, and video messages, supporting both mass broadcasts with automated responses and direct one-on-one conversations. This technical approach allows for efficient outreach while maintaining a personal touch, aiming to inspire action and drive engagement across various sectors.
The company was founded in late 2014 by Roddy Lindsay, Perry Rosenstein, and Tyler Brock. Their foundational insight stemmed from recognizing the critical need for a scalable yet authentic communication tool, particularly for grassroots organizing and advocacy. They sought to bridge the gap between mass communication and genuine human connection, enabling campaigns and organizations to foster stronger relationships with their constituents.
Hustle serves a diverse customer base, including political campaigns, non-profits, educational institutions, and other organizations focused on community engagement and mobilization. Its vision centers on transforming how entities connect with their audience by empowering them to build meaningful relationships through direct mobile communication. The company strives to be the essential tool for driving action and achieving organizational objectives through highly personalized digital interactions.
Hustle has raised $44.0M across 4 funding rounds.
Hustle has raised $44.0M in total across 4 funding rounds.
Hustle has raised $44.0M in total across 4 funding rounds.
Hustle's investors include Hilary Gosher, Google Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, Social Capital, 10100, Adeyemi Ajao, Canvas Ventures, CRV, Emergence Capital, EQT Ventures, GSV Acceleration, LAUNCH.
Hustle is an American technology company offering a peer-to-peer text messaging platform designed for politics, higher education, non-profits, and similar sectors, enabling organizations to initiate personalized conversations with supporters or clients via text, calls, and video.[1][3] It serves advocacy groups, universities, unions, and brands by solving the challenge of high-engagement mobile outreach, where texts achieve superior response rates compared to other channels, with the platform having facilitated over one billion messages for thousands of organizations.[1][3] Growth includes early adoption by political campaigns, expansion into education (e.g., 30 schools for fundraising by 2017), acquisitions like Tape in 2021 for video features, and ownership by Social Capital since 2020, reflecting sustained momentum in conversational marketing.[1][3]
Hustle was founded in December 2014 by Perry Rosenstein (a 2008 Obama campaign strategist), Roddy Lindsay (former Facebook software engineer), and Tyler Brock (former MongoDB engineer), with FWD.us as its first client after Lindsay volunteered there.[1] The idea stemmed from political organizing needs for direct, personal voter outreach via texting, tested by the Clinton campaign in 2015 (though they later built Megaphone in-house).[1] Early traction built rapidly: by 2016, over 10 million messages sent with a peak of 700,000 in one day; by 2017, 38 million conversations with 25 million people.[1] Challenges included 2019 layoffs and CEO Lindsay's departure, but recovery came via Social Capital's 2020 acquisition and the 2021 Tape acquisition (led by Dave Schatz and Tima Zelinsky) to power video messaging.[1]
Hustle rides the wave of conversational marketing and mobile-first engagement, capitalizing on texting's 98% open rates amid declining email and social efficacy, especially in high-stakes areas like politics and fundraising where personal outreach drives voter turnout or donations.[1][3] Timing aligns with post-2016 election tech scrutiny and 2020s privacy regulations favoring consented P2P over cold calls, amplified by video integration amid short-form content booms (e.g., TikTok, Reels).[1][3] Market forces like rising SMS infrastructure costs for enterprises favor scalable platforms, positioning Hustle to influence advocacy ecosystems by empowering non-profits and campaigns—e.g., universities for alumni engagement, unions for mobilization—while Social Capital's backing accelerates enterprise adoption.[1]
Hustle is poised to expand its multimodal platform with AI-driven personalization and deeper video analytics, targeting enterprise brands beyond politics as mobile ROI metrics solidify.[3] Trends like regulatory pushes for authentic engagement (vs. spam) and generative AI for response automation will propel growth, potentially doubling conversational volume amid 2024-2028 election cycles and edtech surges.[1] Its evolution from startup to Social Capital asset—now led by Chamath Palihapitiya—suggests broader ecosystem influence, blending political roots with scalable tech to redefine direct outreach, much like its origins transformed campaign texting.[1]
Hustle has raised $44.0M across 4 funding rounds. Most recently, it raised $30.0M Series B in May 2018.
| Date | Round | Lead Investors | Other Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 1, 2018 | $30.0M Series B | Hilary Gosher | Google Ventures, Salesforce Ventures |
| Aug 1, 2017 | $8.0M Series A | Social Capital | 10100, Adeyemi Ajao, Canvas Ventures, CRV, Emergence Capital, EQT Ventures, GSV Acceleration, LAUNCH, Lightbank, Lightspeed Venture Partners, NextView Ventures, Jeff Richards, Spark Capital, TechSquare Labs, The General Partnership, True Ventures, Uncork Capital, Webb Investment Network, Charlie Cheever, Eric Feng, Joshua Schachter, Matt Mazzeo, Megan Quinn, Designer Fund, Foundation Capital, GSV Ventures, Higher Ground Labs, Index Ventures, Kapor Capital, Matrix Partners, New Media Ventures, Omidyar Network, Salesforce Ventures, Erika Balbuena |
| Nov 15, 2016 | $3.0M Other Equity | Chamath Palihapitiya | Benjamin Narasin, Designer Fund, Ilya Fushman, Ilya Sukhar, Polygon |
| Nov 1, 2016 | $3.0M Seed | 10100, Canvas Ventures, CRV, LAUNCH, Lightbank, Social Capital, TechSquare Labs, The General Partnership, Webb Investment Network, Joshua Schachter |