Betaworks-Backed Weather Service, Poncho, Heads To Chicago

At the start of every day, most people check the weather. They go to the weather app on their phone, or open up weather.com, or perhaps they lick their finger and stick it out the window. I, however, get my weather updates from Poncho.

The betaworks-backed weather service sends you relevant weather updates for the day straight to your email or phone, tailored to when you will likely be outside. The product has only been available in New York since launching a year ago, but has today expanded to include Chicago.

The key to Poncho is its simplicity.

When you first sign up, Poncho will ask you a few quick and painless questions, like what time you leave the house for work, when you take your lunch break, when you come home, and whether or not you have a puppy that needs to go for walks. Then, the user simply specifies whether they want their updates via text or email, and what time they want the daily update.

From there, Poncho sends you a simple email or text every day (I set mine to arrive at 7am each morning, but I have friends that get their updates the night before). Within the alert, there’s temperature info for each time during the day where you might be outside.

But it goes beyond that. Each Poncho alert has a cute, conversational message about the day’s weather. It feels as though you’re getting the daily update from a funny friend who isn’t afraid to send gifs.

In terms of generating revenue, Poncho is wading into the territory slowly. The company has made no formal announcements around monetization, but we’ve seen some interesting deals presented through Poncho. For example, on a rainy day last winter, Poncho and HealthyOut got together and offered a deal on food delivery.

To check out more about Poncho, head over to the website right here.