Please welcome Buzzer, a live sports-streaming service personalized for fans
Meet Buzzer, the latest addition to Lerer Hippeau’s portfolio.
HQ: New York City
Founder: Bo Han
The problem: It’s a familiar problem for sports fans: game day is here, and there are a few matches on the schedule. But switching between channels and streaming platforms, key moments keep getting missed. With more than a dozen platforms streaming live sports, staying on top of how, when, and where to watch the most anticipated matchups can be a challenge. Older viewers might be used to checking the cable guide, but it’s a new ballgame for Gen Z and Millennials who are more likely to look for sports highlights and clips on mobile, but want to view those exciting moments live. How sports fans consume content is changing, and no solution has been a slam dunk, until now.
Buzzer’s solution: Buzzer is a new mobile platform that sends real-time, personalized notifications to help fans watch their favorite teams live. By combining sports rights within the app, Buzzer brings together disparate sports media and streaming services to offer fans a streamlined viewing experience of all the can’t-miss moments. Users can authenticate their preexisting subscriptions in-app or make a micropayment to buy only the moments they watch on Buzzer.
Origin story: Founder Bo Han started his career focused on global revenue for tech companies Microsoft and Twitter. For the last seven years, Bo served as the Director of Live Content for Twitter, where he led Live Sports Rights Acquisition and worked closely with networks, leagues, teams, and players to form partnerships. Bo founded Buzzer at the beginning of 2020 and today opens up its beta program for the first quarter of 2021.
Why we’re betting on it: Bo spent nearly a decade working on content licensing deals at Twitter — making content more accessible and consumable for audiences. Within sports, most content is still long-form, TV-bound and scheduled; yet audiences everywhere are demanding more readily available content, with fewer cords attached. We are excited by Bo’s vision of lowering the barriers to entry for sports and providing a personalized, user-centric experience. And, bolstered by his unique experience at Twitter, are confident in his ability to make that vision a reality.
Our take: Consumer content preferences are changing. Consumers, and especially Gen Z, expect content to be personalized for their interests, tailored for the device and moment, and frictionless to stream. We’ve seen media companies within our portfolio, including BuzzFeed and Axios, reimagine content formats (from quizzes to short-form podcasts) to appeal to how today’s audiences consume content and information. With a $70 billion live sports market in North America alone, we think there is a tremendous opportunity to apply a more personalized content playbook to sports.
Further reading: “Buzzer wants to reinvent live sports consumption” via Axios.
Learn about careers at Buzzer.
