A somewhat stealthy new startup called Gumhouse just raised over $6 million according to this SEC filing, and there are some big names attached to the project, it seems. According to the Gumhouse.com website, the service is described as a “social stream video shopping network,” which uses Facebook to personalize your shopping experience. After a little digging, it appears the service has already soft launched.
Listed as “Directors” on the filing are LegalZoom, ShoeDazzle, and The Honest Company co-founder Brian Lee and former Photobucket Biz Dev VP and Color co-founder Peter Pham, who’s also at Science, the Betworks-like technology studio/incubator based in L.A. Meanwhile, “Executive Officers” include Tom Dare, former VP of Business Intelligence at MySpace and Mike Jones, both also of Science, and RxVantage co-founder Greg Gilman. Polaris Ventures General Partner, Jason Trevisan, is listed as a director, too.
Despite flying a bit under the radar, the company has been busy tweeting and posting deals to its Facebook page. For example, a post yesterday encouraged Facebook fans to RSVP to their favorite sales at sites like Uncovet, Wittlebee and RescueTime. The Gumhouse Facebook page also “likes” companies such as 12Society, Dollar Shave Club, Swag of the Month, Gentlemen Square, Uncovet, SaneBox.com, and HelloShop, and is pointing users to “video sales” that happen on the Gumhouse.com domain.
These sales seem to involve time-sensitive, exclusive deals accompanied by a video showcasing something about the company or offer being touted. (Really bummed, for example, that I missed this one from Wittlebee, as it turns out. I have a shower this weekend!) A big yellow button tells users to “share & see price,” for the current deal (not pictured). After doing so (which posts the deal to Facebook), the price is revealed and you can buy whatever’s being offered.
A handful of these deals have been posted to Facebook during May, and have featured things like fitness programs, kids’ clothes, albums, and more.
While none of this has been officially confirmed by the company (we reached out, though), a startup that aims to help us make sense of the plethora of deals and discounts available through various flash sale sites, subscription services, and other e-commerce offerings would be a big help to regular shoppers, and using Facebook profile data to match shoppers to deals is just clever. In addition, Gumhouse says that the more you use the service, it will continually improve your experience, suggesting an adaptive learning aspect to its matching algorithms.
The main Gumhouse URL is just a Launchrock page for now, but you can sign-up here.