While there are numerous calendar and scheduling apps designed for professional use to organize meetings with colleagues, Howbout focuses on helping friends find time to connect and catch up.
With a majority of its users aged 25 and under, the company has observed that over 75% of its users willingly share their full calendars with at least one friend.
Founded in August 2020 by university friends Neil Tanna, Jake Jenner, and Duncan Cowan, the startup was born out of the founders’ personal struggle to find time to socialize post-graduation. Through collaboration, they created Howbout to bridge the gap between personal schedules and social interaction.
Today, Howbout has announced a successful Series A funding round of $8 million led by Goodwater Capital, with participation from FJ Labs, Sequel, and football player Harry Maguire. Total funding raised by the company now exceeds $13 million.
Tanna explained that while work schedules are often collaborative, personal schedules tend to be isolated. Howbout aims to make time a social element by allowing users to view and share schedules with friends, create groups, and schedule events seamlessly.
The app enables users to invite friends to events through a link, with non-users being able to view invites but needing to download the app to respond. Howbout also offers features like voting on availability and creating group chats for event planning.
Apart from scheduling, Howbout offers features for creating bucket lists, memories, and group chats for each event planned with friends, aiming to simplify social interactions and eliminate the need for temporary group chats on other platforms.
Building a social product centered around time
With over 4 million monthly active users and 50 million events created, Howbout’s network effects are driven by users known as chief friend officers who actively engage and add more friends to the platform.
As the company focuses on growth, Chi-Hua Chien of Goodwater Capital sees Howbout’s potential in building a successful social network centered around time, catering to Gen Z users who value social connections over privacy.
While shared personal calendars may not be a mainstream trend yet, Howbout’s innovative approach could pave the way for a new way of socializing and planning events with friends.
