SPUN: The Tale of a Successful Brooklyn App
June 2012: Lots of hard thinking ensues. Rather than launch Broadcastr 3.0 as it is, Andy and Scott decide to scrap it and rebuild. The new app is named SPUN. It will take the best content from the Web and spin it back into the world. It will be much, much simpler. There will be no Android app and no Web app. It’s a stressful transition, and some people end up leaving the company.
(Here’s the thing: You start by wanting to change the world with something visionary, multifaceted, and deep. You end up just wanting to build a little thing that works. What you eventually realize is that it’s the little things that work that end up changing the world.)
July 2012: SPUN is designed as a three-dimensional, multi-faced rectangular prism resting behind the iPhone’s glass. Each side represents a different category of content, and stories are browsed on a vertically-scrolling belt. Tapping a story’s image carries the user to an interior canvas where the content of the story is displayed (text, images, audio, video). At its core, SPUN is about place, so the deepest level is a content-rich map where each story is placed at its exact location.
August 2012: Work, stress and worries.
September 2012: Work, hope and excitement.
October 2012: SPUN is demoed to Broadcastr’s investors and media partners with positive results.
November 28, 2012: SPUN launches on iPhone. Apple features it as “New and Noteworthy.”
December 2012: With over 125 reviews, SPUN has a perfect 5-star rating and is featured as “What’s Hot” by Apple. More than 40,000 people download it.
January 2012: Compared to Broadcastr, three times as many people use SPUN every day. Andy and Scott are meeting with new investors and media partners. Brooklyn Magazine, one of their new partners, invites them to write this timeline, and they do.