🔒CT-based startup Kazark uses crowdfunding to develop news aggregation app

The last story published during the lifetime of Mark Twain was “Extract from Captain Stormfield’s Visit to Heaven” in 1909.

The short story is a first-person account of Captain Stormfield’s journey to heaven, which he finds ludicrously incongruous with his preconceived notions.

During a race with a comet, Stormfield relays that the term “kazark” represents an abstract unit of measurement in the afterlife that is infinitely large and small; inscrutable, yet strangely quantifiable.

While modern use of the internet predated Twain by nearly a century, entrepreneur Drue Hontz — himself a fan of the late humorist — sees parallels between the fictional story and the current need for news consumers to sift through multiple sources of information to understand what’s happening in a constantly expanding media environment.

That was Hontz’s inspiration for Kazark, an app he created that helps provide news consumers with context and a multidimensional understanding of events around the world, including geopolitical, environment and human rights issues.

Put simply, Kazark helps news consumers “navigate massive amounts of information easily,” said Hontz, an Old Saybrook resident who has 24 years of experience as a serial entrepreneur and founded an elevator company in his basement in 1997, which he grew and sold to an international conglomerate.

He also created a current events app called Track180; is principal of Saybrook Consulting Group, a business and marketing strategy consulting firm; and managing partner of Raybern Utility Solutions, a utilities consulting firm.

Hontz is developing Kazark with the help of Chris Errato, founder and CEO of MindTrust, a software developer. Errato and six to 10 developers from MindTrust are working on Kazark at various times.

Errato, whose firm is based out of The District in New Haven, is a fractional chief technology officer for Kazark. He said MindTrust has a venture agreement with Kazark, through which it provides some of its services in exchange for a stake in the business.

“We sometimes discount our work or provide free services, as kind of the same as cash investment,” Errato said. “You can either raise venture capital and payers, or you can get free development. We kind of have a hybrid work model, where we’re invested in Kazark through our work.”

He said Kazark is different from a social media platform like Facebook, which displays content personalized to a person’s likes and tastes.

“Kazark is trying to widen the aperture,” Errato said. “It’s not going to be in an echo chamber. You’re going to get to see a lot of articles, and then make up your own mind.”

Hontz has been working on Kazark for about 10 years and has obtained 11 patents in four countries (the U.S., Japan, China and Russia) for his algorithms that drive the app’s information-curating engine.

The platform will operate on a “freemium model,” offering basic services for free with the option for users to subscribe to receive premium features, such as access to content behind paywalls.

In the future, Kazark aims to expand its revenue streams by offering an enterprise platform, providing both business-to-business and business-to-consumer applications.

Hontz said he plans to build and grow the business in Connecticut, which has a burgeoning tech-development space.

“I’m enthusiastic to bring this technology and have it come out of Connecticut,” he said. “That’s my goal. I built it here.”

Raising money

The company recently launched a crowdfunding campaign on Netcapital, a platform that helps startups raise money by selling “shares.”

Through crowdfunding, Kazark has already raised about $400,000 from accredited investors, Hontz said.

However, through the current Netcapital campaign, unaccredited investors have an opportunity to buy shares for $2 each, with a minimum $100 investment.

The campaign’s goal is to raise up to $1 million. As of early September, it had raised nearly $45,000. The company’s current valuation on Netcapital is $8 million.

Proceeds from the Netcapital campaign will go toward software development (45%), marketing (25%), legal/patents (11%), hosting (9%) and compensation for managers (5%), according to the offering statement.

Netcapital advises people not to invest any funds unless they can afford to lose their entire investment.

The technology

Hontz said Kazark’s proprietary technology will help drive traffic to news websites, making journalism more accessible, while enhancing consumers’ trust in news. His philosophy is that access to more information leads to a better understanding of truth.

“It’s 3D compared to 1D,” Hontz said. “If I’m looking at a building, and I take three different photos at different angles, I have a much better idea of that building.”

Kazark is also meant to help save people time by removing duplicative information.

One search with Kazark has the power of at least 10 Google searches, Hontz said. The platform presents information from multiple perspectives, including opposing viewpoints, in an easy-to-understand visual format.

For example, performing a search about an incident that occurred in Ukraine could yield results that include links to a CNN article and a report from a local Ukrainian news outlet, a post on X (formerly Twitter) from a person on the ground in Ukraine, and an article about the impact on Russian politics. Hontz called the additional sources “contextually relevant dimensions.”

The algorithms vet news sources, providing only credible information, he said.

Kazark also provides users with solutions, such as direct access to organizations that provide aid and relief — what Hontz calls “actionable insights.”

“With one click, I’ve got six different perspectives, I have 12 videos, I’ve got 20 tweets,” Hontz said. “I’ve got multiple expert articles. I’m connected to the groups that are doing something about the issue. I’m able to ‘Kazarkify’ it.”

The team

Kazark lists Waterbury attorney James Cummings as its chief legal officer and Kim Peratt as its chief experience officer. Hontz said he’s also working with a patent attorney in Boston. The business has roughly 10 employees.

While the app is still under development, Hontz said some components will be ready for beta testing this year.

In addition to news, Kazark’s algorithms have applications for e-commerce, business intelligence and travel, Hontz said.

“It’s called a hub-and-spoke model,” Hontz said. “The Kazark hub is the core technology that can be used in multiple applications. The spokes are the different verticals.”

Kazark also includes a movie app, capable of making movie suggestions based on numerous variables — from the user’s favorite director to their mood — with the ability to apply other user-defined filters.

“Kazark is a tool that is going to make it easier and more informative for you to make a decision that you can feel good about,” Hontz said.