The Story Behind Haystack's Investment in Haus

Since 2010 or so, e-commerce companies, retailers, brands, and other consumer-facing properties had a clear understanding of how they grew their businesses on digital channels like Google and Facebook. With their widespread distribution across web / mobile and products like the famous Facebook Pixel, these platforms provided a foundation for businesses to reach millions of consumers across the world. Starting in 2017 and 2018, spurred by concerns of individual privacy, the sands started to shift on the types of data both platforms and companies could collect. The EU passed the GDPR (which went into effect in 2018), and California introduced a similar statute called the CCPA. Apple started making it difficult for advertisers to collect user information from devices and measure attribution in newer versions of iOS. 

We were aware of the backdrop of these larger privacy changes (and knew businesses would have to adapt), but Haystack did not meet anyone *uniquely* equipped to tackle the challenge of providing new tools until we met Zach Epstein in the fall of 2021 (thank you for the introduction Renee!). Zach had previously run Privacy Safe Ads Targeting at YouTube and Entertainment Analytics at Google. He educated Semil and I on the technical details of the different machine learning techniques marketers could use in the future. He had close industry ties with large, consumer-facing brands who were willing to give him and his new company a shot. But I remember what really stood out – Zach had and still maintains a deep authenticity tied to the problem space of Haus, and believes in the inevitability of his company. There was a direct tie to the types of problems he worked on in previous roles, and he understands the true texture of customers’ problems with digital marketing. In a world where it's easier to start companies but harder to scale them, this is powerful. 

Today, in the late summer of 2023, Haus announces its $17M Series A led by Insight Partners. They are building a growth command center that provides brands with the right tools to fully understand their digital marketing spend, measurement, and attribution. This Series A comes after a pre-seed in 2021 led by Haystack and seed in 2022, and we are lucky to collaborate with a handful of other investor friends like Baseline, Upside Partnership, Will Smith from Octave, and others on this company.

The proof is in the pudding with Haus. Their products have quickly resonated with large customers from Day 1 like FanDuel and Sonos, and revenue has scaled incredibly quickly with a large pipeline in front of them. Zach is assembling a great team (see open roles here!), coupling deeper R&D of new models & experiments with customer-centric engineering that gets those into large enterprises' hands. The product insights and foundation that Zach and Haus established have enabled them to fully seize the opportunity as this market has become faster running water. It is a pleasure to work with and support this great company, and we are excited about their continued growth!