Bluesky Feed Builder Graze Raises $1M, Launches Ads

Graze Secures $1 Million to Empower Bluesky Feed Creators

Graze, a startup focused on enhancing the Bluesky social network, has successfully raised new capital. A pre-seed funding round, spearheaded by Betaworks and Salesforce Ventures, has provided the company with $1 million.

Giving Users Algorithmic Control

This investment will support Graze’s small team in their mission to grant users greater control over their algorithms and overall social media experiences. The company’s software is designed to facilitate the creation and monetization of custom feeds.

Bluesky's Unique Feed System

Unlike platforms such as X or Threads, Bluesky distinguishes itself by allowing users to create and follow personalized feeds. These feeds can be pinned to the app’s navigation, effectively becoming a user’s preferred home feed.

Currently, Bluesky boasts a growing community of nearly 35 million users.

Simplifying Feed Creation

However, crafting custom feeds can present challenges for individuals without development expertise. Graze addresses this issue by offering software that simplifies the process.

The platform provides tools, templates, and management features for feed moderation, logic, filters, sort order, and the social graph contained within each feed.

Current Usage and Popular Feeds

As of today, Graze powers 4,500 Bluesky feeds, created by approximately 3,000 users. These include prominent feeds like News, Booksky, and numerous others covering diverse interests.

• Gaming
• Art
• Politics
• Sports
• Fitness
• Hobbies

The news tracking service, Sill, has also been experimenting with Graze’s advertising system for promoted posts.

Monetization Through Advertising

Graze is now expanding beyond feed creation and management by enabling creators to monetize their feeds through advertising.

The company aims to establish a more ethical advertising framework, differing from the data-centric approaches of larger tech companies.

A New Approach to Ad Targeting

Instead of relying on extensive user data for ad targeting, advertisers on Graze select specific feeds where they wish their ads to appear. The feed’s subject matter provides insight into the potential demographic, and feed operators retain control over ad selection, frequency, and cost.

Empowering Advertisers

Graze’s founders believe this system also benefits advertisers. Traditional social networks dictate where and how ads are displayed, often with limited advertiser control.

“Advertisers have very little control over where their content is seen,” explains Devin Gaffney, Graze’s co-founder and CTO.

User Control and Opt-Out Options

Furthermore, users on conventional platforms typically lack the ability to opt out of seeing advertisements. Graze empowers feed operators to decide whether to run ads and provides editorial oversight of sponsored content.

Users can also block sponsored hashtags to opt out of ads within a specific feed.

Self-Regulation and Pro-Social Behavior

The team suggests that feed operators are incentivized to avoid overwhelming their feeds with ads, preventing users from blocking them or abandoning the feed altogether.

“There is a self-regulatory aspect that is not present in other platforms,” Gaffney stated.

Current Ad Performance and Future Growth

Currently, 200 feeds utilizing Graze are running ads at an average cost of $1 per 1,000 impressions. The team anticipates growth alongside the expansion of Bluesky itself.

Graze retains 30% of ad revenue, covering hosting, payment processing, and the software for feed creation and management, even for non-monetized feeds.

Exploring Revenue Sharing

Looking ahead, Graze is considering revenue-sharing arrangements with Bluesky and other applications built on the AT Protocol (ATProto). The company is currently collaborating with ATProto-based apps like Skylight, Spark, and Flashes.

“We’re very interested in figuring out what is the ethical revenue sharing model,” said Peat Bakke, Graze’s co-founder and CEO.

Funding Details and Future Focus

The $1 million pre-seed round was led by Betaworks and Salesforce Ventures, with contributions from Factorial, Apertu Capital, Skyseed, and angel investors from Mozilla and Protocol Labs.

The funds will enable Graze to refine its product-market fit. The team is currently prioritizing discovery and user experience.

“Right now, we are not focused on revenue,” Bakke said. “We’re focused on discovery, learning… how do we make this a great experience for everyone?”

Team and Location

Graze’s team consists of Devin Gaffney (Portland-based CTO), Peat Bakke (CEO), and Andrew Lisowski (San Jose-based front-end developer), along with a small team of part-time contributors.

Note: This article has been updated to include further details regarding Sill’s utilization of Graze technology.