9
Every year, on October 22, I try to look back at the year of Untappd, and reflect on something that has changed my life. Now, I know that many people overuse this term, “changed my life”, but this is truth. Untappd did change my life. It got me my first development job, it allowed me to grow an amazing team, travel the world and most importantly, meet amazing people in the community that I have become very close friends. If Untappd had not come around, not sure I would be where I would be today, both professional or personally. That’s kind of a scary thought!
That being said, today marks the 9th Anniversary of Untappd. 9 years ago, a button was pressed, and Untappd was turned on for everyone to see. You can read more of the story on how Untappd came to be in last year’s review, but for this year, I want to focus on what we have done since then.
The term “start-up” is a catchy phrase that many people use in the software world. It’s exciting, energetic and every day feels like it’s make or break with the product you are building. As you grow, your company changes as well. This exactly what as happened this last year with Untappd. We’ve now grown to over 100+ employees at Untappd. Every time I say this stat, I am perplexed, amazed and humbled. This small little idea that was hatched over 9 years ago, now employs that many people. Even with so many, we’re still energetic and the work still excites people all over the company, from support, to engagement, to sales — we operate as one unit which brings joy to my face everyday.
This year Untappd has grown even bigger with a community of over 7 million users, checking in over 800 million beers over the last 9 years. That’s right — 800 million beers! One of the greatest joys of working for Untappd is the community of people that use our product every day. When I get the chance to meet someone in person who loves the app as much as I do, it’s amazingly rewarding and motivational.
As for our business product, Untappd for Business, we have close to 18,000 venues using the software world-wide. I am personally so thrilled to see this number increasing every day, and the features that users in the app get to use including, sorting a menu by beers you’ve never had before, or geting push alerts when something new goes on tap. It’s these experiences that further continue to grow the excitement of Untappd.
One thing that I’ve learned this year, is always appreciate and give thanks to your teammates and peers. As a co-founder, it’s a given that you will have a level of a passion for something you’ve created, but to have people, nine years in to a company, get hired and work with that same passion as you, is incredible. You may not hear their names often, but they are the building blocks of the culture at Untappd.
The Beer Scouts at GABF 2o19 (https://www.instagram.com/p/B3UeYeIJO20/)
We’ve done a lot over this last year, including adding RSVP features for events, adding quick check-in for faster checking in, friend tagging and friend finding improvements, to most recently improving supporter features, with the introduction of 0.1 ratings . We even held our first ever beer festival in Charlotte, NC early this year.
All these things could not done have been done without the support of you, the community. While many people think of the community as just the users who drink the beer, we are referring to everyone in that process, including Brewers and Retail Spots, including Bottle Shops and Bars. We’re all part of this amazing industry that is beer and so thankful that Untappd get’s to be part of that.
Since day one, feedback is something we hold near and dear to our hearts. I always believed that if you can use feedback to improve a product and actually follow through on that, you could make a lot of people happy and experience great growth. While I’m not personally responding to tickets anymore (I do sometimes!), I feel that we have kept that bar high and to this day, use feedback as ways to innovate. We can’t always do everything that the community wants (it’s all about balance), but we are always listening and trying to improve. So if you have submitted feedback this past year — thank you! Please note that we do read every piece of feedback and discuss it. It’s important to improving and making Untappd the best it can be.
A lot of people ask me how did Untappd get a community so big? The simple answer is that we didn’t create it, it was already there. We just cultivated the community together in one spot to share, discover and experience all that beer has to offer.
Taking a photo with fan in Richmond, VA for the Seven City Tour (https://www.instagram.com/p/B2rQCwuJjYt/)
So on the October 22, 2019 — I raise my glass to toast you: the user, the brewer, the Untappd moderator, the bottle shop owner and the bartender. It’s our community, and I’m just happy to be along for the ride!
