Howbout

Market position

The company describes the non-work calendar as an undisrupted category, distinct from enterprise scheduling tools such as Doodle and Clockwise and from personal productivity calendar apps. In October 2024 the app was ranked No. 15 in Apple's US App Store "Social Networking" chart and had been listed in the top 10 social App Store charts in more than 30 countries. Its investor Goodwater Capital frames time as the core content type of the product, analogous to status updates for Facebook or looping music videos for Musical.ly. Other IRL social apps, such as Pie, target a similar young-adult demographic.

Howbout applies the multiplayer, visible-schedule model of workplace calendars to personal life, combining a personal calendar, friends' availability, group chat per plan and privacy tiers in one app rather than splitting planning across a calendar app and messaging services. Users can share availability without exposing a full calendar, and can set each plan's visibility to Friends, Close Friends or private.

Technology

A mobile application with two-way syncing to external calendar services (Google Calendar, Outlook, iCloud), availability calculation across a friend graph, event polling, per-event group messaging, home-screen widgets and push notifications for plan changes. Earlier versions integrated with virtual meeting services including Houseparty, Skype, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams. Data is encrypted in transit and the Google Play listing states no data is shared with third parties.

Go-to-market

Growth has been largely organic and viral: the company reported that around 90% of new users join via referral links and word-of-mouth, driven by inherent network effects within existing friend groups and clubs. Social media, particularly TikTok, is used as a growth channel, with the app store listing citing over 1 billion views across social platforms. Distribution is through the Apple App Store and Google Play, where the app has ranked highly in social/social networking charts in multiple countries.

Consumers organising social plans: friend groups, couples, families, housemates and clubs. Its early adopters are the organiser figures within friend groups, which the company calls "Chief Friendship Officers." The majority of users are aged 25 or below, and the company targets young adults rather than teens or students, having found the product less suited to student users.

Geography

Headquartered in London, United Kingdom (52-60 Tabernacle Street, Shoreditch, EC2A 4NJ). Users span 100+ to 150+ countries; the largest audience is the United States, followed by the UK, Germany, Australia and Canada, with 41% of monthly active users in the US as of October 2024. The Series A proceeds were intended in part to expand in the US market.

History

The London-based startup soft-launched in December 2019, gathering 3,000 users, and raised a £100,000 angel round in February 2020; the company was founded in August 2020. When the pandemic hit, it pivoted to virtual planning with integrations for Houseparty, Skype, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams, organising more than 120,000 virtual plans during UK lockdowns before formally launching the app in late 2020. A £500,000 pre-seed round drew over 700 crowd investors, and a further £500,000 round in March 2021 included Atomic Angel. In June 2022 it closed a seed round of more than £1 million led by Supernode Global and co-led by Boost Capital. In September 2024 it announced an $8 million Series A led by Goodwater Capital, bringing total funding to more than $13 million, and headcount grew from six in 2022 to 10-13 around the Series A.

Risks & controversies

The company was pre-revenue as of October 2024 and was still determining how to monetize without degrading the user experience, a challenge management identified ahead of and after its Series A. Its market thesis depends on shared personal calendars becoming a durable social behaviour, which remains unproven. User reviews on Google Play report issues including crashes when adding images, incorrect adjustment of event end times, and an onboarding flow that required adding friends before proceeding.