Pzizz helps users quickly quiet their minds, fall asleep fast, stay asleep, and wake up refreshed. Using the latest clinical research, the apps utilize “dreamscapes” – a mix of music, voiceover, and sound effects designed to help users sleep better at night or take power naps during the day. Over 1M people have used Pzizz to get a good power nap or a good night’s sleep, including NBA star Roy Hibbert and acclaimed author JK Rowling.
Because of their commitment to bringing better sleep worldwide, Pzizz focused on identifying a scalable acquisition channel. The team went on a customer acquisition journey and determined the network that fit best for their product and audience.
Once the team had identified the best acquisition channel, they hit upon a real need to solve their cash flow issue. With the app stores holding onto earnings for 1-2 months, the team would not be able to aggressively scale their marketing campaigns.
Pzizz founder and CEO Rockwell Shah preferred to avoid raising venture capital. “Equity is a very expensive way to finance your company,” said Rockwell. “Raising equity means giving away parts of your company for capital. Our unit economics were solid and were profitable. Unless the VC brings X factors that go beyond the money, VC didn’t make sense.”
Rockwell also looked at traditional bank financing and loan vehicles, as well as newer fintech products, like credit cards geared toward startups and other revenue-based fintechs. However, their financing terms were not always transparent, and didn’t offer integration with the team’s analytics.
The Braavo team is amazing! Every once in a while I’ll give feedback, and within a couple of weeks I’ll see my feedback integrated into the product. It’s so rare to see a team execute on that so consistently. I am really impressed.
Braavo stands out with its deep level of integration with app analytics. They’re not only providing financing, they’re also providing insight. Braavo’s weekly payments means that if you’re trying to invest and scale a marketing campaign, you get a much faster iteration cycle. Your credit limit is only limited by your sales, so the more you sell, the more you can finance yourself.
Ultimately, Pzizz found that Braavo was the best financing solution. Braavo’s financing terms were the most straightforward and easiest to understand compared with competitors. Getting started was a quick and easy process, especially compared with traditional banks with more terms and requirements. Braavo also provided a dashboard with analytics feedback integration built in that other financing platforms didn’t.
Pzizz utilized Braavo’s revenue-based financing product, Accelerate, to access their earnings sooner and pour these returns into their marketing campaigns. Additionally, when stay-at-home orders were announced in March 2020 and ad pricing dropped, Pzizz used Accelerate to increase ad spend for one of their new apps, Mesmerize, while keeping costs the same as before. During a key moment when people were isolated and turning to apps for physical, mental, and emotional well-being, Pzizz was able to get in front of new users and offer support.
A screenshot from Pzizz’s Mesmerize app.
Overall, Pzizz’s partnership with Braavo allowed the team to scale their advertising campaigns quickly and comfortably. With Braavo’s support during stay-at-home orders, Pzizz quadrupled its revenue on Mesmerize while keeping costs the same. This would have been difficult to achieve without any external funding. Braavo allows Pzizz to continue to reinvest their earnings into marketing, creating a healthy subscription funnel.
