8

8

8 years ago today, on October 22nd, something amazing happened that changed my life and rocked the world of beer.

That “something” was Untappd.

What Untappd looked like in 2010.

In the summer of 2010, Tim Mather and I were looking for a new app to build, and one idea Tim suggested, was a beer app built off the success of Foursquare (now Swarm). The concept was simple. Instead of “checking-in” to a venue, you would “check-in” to a beer, add a location and a review of that beer. To me, I thought maybe our close friends and family would indulge us by using it, but the idea of people sharing with the world what beers, how much they were drinking during one sitting, etc., seemed taboo to me. I famously told Tim, “I don’t think anyone is going to use this.”

Never have I been so happy to be wrong in my life.

Untappd HQ Sign in Wilmington, NC

We created the app and ten days into the launch, Untappd was used to check in a beer by Christina Warren, employee of Mashable at the time, now with Microsoft. Tim and I got pretty excited. Was she working on a review of Untappd for Mashable? On November 5, 2010, sure enough, our first article was published on Mashable. What a long day in scaling that was, but there was our first big break.

Fast forward eight years and we have a lot of people to thank. Untappd is stronger and bigger than ever. In 2016, due to our merger with Next Glass, Tim and I have been able to work on this business full-time and hire many more people to build the product. We now have over 90 employees working out of our main headquarters in Wilmington, NC. We even have an sign on the door and everything! Passerby’s actually thought the sign meant there was an Untappd bar and would come in during business hours looking for a cold beer. Sorry to disappoint guys!

But that enthusiasm for our product, that idea that you would actually want to walk into an Untappd bar and hang out with other “Untappers”, that’s what we are most importantly thankful for. It’s that community that has been created. Without you, there is no Untappd, there are no 90 employees, and there is no office. One of the things that I think sets Untappd apart, is our intense attention to the user. We firmly believe that they are our biggest stakeholders, and we always listen to feedback and make adjustments based on that information. Of course, there are some things we cannot do, and we hate to have to say “no”, but we always welcome the dialog. We believe in transparency. From a community aspect, we are all in this together.

I can’t thank everyone enough for their passion, interest and support of the Untappd community. With over 6 million strong, from all over the world, you all have generated over 650 million check-ins over the last 8 year and it’s growing every day.

With so much success and so many great users, this year we came up with the idea to do a Seven City Tour. I would visit the top seven cities in the USA with the most check ins. On that tour, I met a lot of people from the Untappd community. Getting to interact with them, listen to their beer experiences and get their feedback, made me realize even more what an impact this app has had and the community it has created.

One of my favorite recurring Untappd moments, is when I walk into a bar, and see someone I don’t know sitting there with the yellow glow of the Untappd app reflecting off their phone as they check in a beer or toast someone else’s check in. Just last week I stopped into The Pony Bar in NYC to drop off posters for our 8th Anniversary event and I met a gentleman and his dad, vacationing in NYC from London, and they were grabbing a beer so they could get their “Founders Hangout” badge.

It’s a dream come true to be able to be a part of a product such as Untappd, and it’s incredibly humbling for me to meet people such as that father and son duo collecting their badge. It’s those moments that give me the motivation to keep working and improving Untappd every day.

Some of the amazing community of Untappd at GABF!

Another part of the Untappd community that I want to acknowledge are the 250+ moderators that help keep the Untappd system clean with edits and duplicates. With over 5 million beers on Untappd, duplication and mis-information is bound to happen, and these fine men and women dedicate their free time and energy to help Untappd keep moving in the right direction.

The breweries cannot go unthanked either for their support of our platform and its community. Without beer, there is no Untappd, so without the breweries that make the beer, we wouldn’t exist. It can be daunting at first, but we believe that Untappd can help breweries grow, get feedback and embrace and connect with the community too.

Finally, with anything you set out to accomplish in life, you have to a good support team in the office and in the home. With an app like Untappd, your happy hour tends to be our work hour so we can make sure the product is always there for you to use. With that comes crazy work hours and a lot of supportive family and friends willing to adjust for you, keep you sane and level-headed. I’ve been fortunate enough to have an amazing team of people behind the scenes with me. To my wife, Ashley, you have helped me every step of the way, thank you for your patience, support and love.

So what’s next for Untappd? Well, we are working on many amazing features for the app and website (including more feature parity between the two), more features for our business customers, and much much more. While it sounds corny, we believe that we are disrupting the beer industry for the better, and we will continue to work to improve our app to make it the best it can be.

From our entire team at Untappd, we want to thank you for everything that you have done to help us grow. It really means a lot to me personally, as well as the team.

We’re excited to keep pouring from our tap for more many years to come.