Earlier this week I used to be on an electronic mail thread with somebody attempting to schedule a video name. “@Howie can prepare time for a 45min chat,” they wrote.
After a couple of emails, Howie helped affirm a time. “Any supplies or agenda objects you want to me so as to add to the assembly description?” Howie requested.
This appeared like a typical back-and-forth email-based coordination. Besides Howie isn’t an actual individual.
Howie is a brand new AI-powered assistant that lives in your electronic mail inbox and desires to ascertain itself because the go-to AI secretary for anybody who schedules lots of conferences.
The Seattle startup that developed the software simply raised $6 million in seed funding after racking up greater than 1,000 paying clients.
The spherical was led by True Ventures, with participation from a roster of well-known buyers together with Jason Calacanis; Aravind Srinivas, CEO of Perplexity; Jordi Hays of TBPN; Rahul Vohra of Superhuman; and others.
Howie’s software program acts like a digital govt assistant for busy professionals who spend a lot of their time on exterior calls. Customers can merely cc Howie on an electronic mail thread, and the system will coordinate occasions, add occasions to calendars, comply with up if wanted, and even audit schedules to flag conflicts.
Clients embody startup founders juggling fundraising and gross sales, enterprise capitalists managing deal move, journalists scheduling interviews, and consultants and recruiters.
Since its non-public beta, Howie has been scheduling greater than 5,000 conferences every week for its paying clients. The corporate says it has grown month-to-month recurring income and utilization by a mean of fifty% month-over-month in 2025.
Howie enters a crowded market with quite a few AI assistant startups attempting to automate back-office duties. Perplexity simply launched an analogous electronic mail assistant for Outlook or Gmail. Xembly, one other Seattle startup, raised $15 million for its AI govt assistant product however shut down final yr.
Howie pitches its differentiator as a mixture of customization and accuracy. Clients outline preferences in an open-ended doc — equivalent to “if it’s a pitch name, set it to 25 minutes and use Zoom” — that lets Howie adapt to particular person workflows.
Behind the scenes, the system runs duties by a number of fine-tuned language fashions, escalating unsure circumstances to human reviewers. That hybrid strategy is designed to ship reliability on par with a human govt assistant.
Howie fees $25/month for its normal providing and $95/month for a premium model that enables customers to rename Howie, amongst different options.
CEO Austin Petersmith and co-founder Dave Newman first labored collectively at Meeting in 2013, and even prototyped an AI assistant in 2015 — finally deciding the market wasn’t prepared. They imagine now could be the appropriate time. “Now it’s not too early, so right here we’re,” Petersmith advised GeekWire.
Howie is predicated in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood. Its nine-person crew contains 5 former founders, together with two Y Combinator alums.
Petersmith beforehand based Capiche, which was acquired by Vendr.
Different buyers in Howie embody Sophia Amoruso of Belief Fund; Turner Novak of Banana Capital; Gaby Goldberg of Rostra; Lindel Eakman of Foundry Group; Sheel Mohnot; Resolute Ventures; PJC; and Roo Capital. Seattle tech vet Diego Oppenheimer can also be an investor — “I couldn’t stay with out Howie at this level,” he tells GeekWire.
Keep forward of the curve with NextBusiness 24. Discover extra tales, subscribe to our publication, and be part of our rising neighborhood at nextbusiness24.com