Clubhouse App Poised to be a Test Case for Social Audio in Sports

Back in late January, Clubhouse—an audio-based social networking startup—confirmed it had closed on a $100 million Series B round (led by Andreesen Horowitz), reportedly at a $1 billion valuation. However, despite the company’s newly minted unicorn status, the invite-only iPhone app remained largely under the radar outside of Silicon Valley circles. That changed on Jan. 31, when an unexpected conversation between Tesla founder Elon Musk and Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev brought Clubhouse into the mainstream lexicon, sparking a secondary market for invite codes in the process (each user receives a limited number of invitations to dole out during the pre-launch period). With the drop-in audio platform gaining momentum—roughly a third of the app’s 3.5 million-plus downloads came within the last week—it seemed like an opportune time to explore if/how Clubhouse is likely to affect the sports ecosystem (the company declined an opportunity to share its thoughts). Conversations with a tech-savvy venture capitalist and a sports media investor/adviser painted vastly differing views on the subject.Our Take: Peter Rojas (partner, Betaworks Ventures) has long been a believer that social audio can play a prominent role within the existing media landscape.  » Read More