top of page

GroupMe: The $85 Million Chat App with No Revenue

GroupMe launched and sold in one year for $85 million without making a single penny.

GroupMe Founders Steve Martocci (left) and Jared Hecht (right)

In 2010, Jared Hecht’s girlfriend told him she hated using email chains to talk with friends during music festivals. Within 18-hours, him and his friend, Steve Martocci, built a prototype group messaging app and pitched it 2 days later at a TechCrunch hackathon. Their lives were about to change forever.. In a world without iMessage, word of GroupMe spread, starting a viral loop since users had to invite their friends. Steve and Jared quit their day jobs in August and stayed afloat using a small loan from Hecht’s parents. Now, hold on tight. By September they raised $850,000 in funding, in October they launched the official beta, November they realized this was far bigger than just music festivals, December they were sending 500k messages a day, and in January 2011, they raised another $10.6 million. The next two months brought their first acquisition, lawsuit, and competitors like Google+ and iMessage but none of that mattered. In May 2011, 370 days after launching, GroupMe was acquired by Skype for $85 million.


Comments


bottom of page