Tag
Co-Founder & CTO
(2013 - 2015)
Founded a social media app that grew to tens of thousands of users leading to a successful exit.
Right after college, I moved to New York to co-found a location-based social app called Tag with three partners. At the time, sharing locations on Foursquare was a popular trend, but many users preferred not to broadcast their whereabouts to their entire following. With Snapchat gaining traction, we envisioned an app where users could send a pin of their location along with a picture or video to select friends individually. This concept aimed to help friends discover their proximity to each other, encouraging spontaneous meetups.
In under a year, with a small team of two engineers and a UX designer, we developed a fully-functional iPhone and Android app with a Python-based REST API. Our app featured capabilities on par with major social media platforms, including doodling on pictures, video, push notifications, social sign-in, and a beautiful, user-friendly UI.
Disrupting the Social App Landscape
In 2014, we identified Penn State as the first school for a full campus launch. We organized a campus ambassador program, hosted parties, ran giveaway contests, and generated as much buzz as possible. Unbeknownst to us, another social app called CyberDust, backed by Mark Cuban, was attempting to launch simultaneously but struggled due to the excitement around Tag. This led Mark Cuban to request an introduction to our team, expressing interest in investing in our company.
We capitalized on the momentum we gained at Penn State and kicked off a seed funding round. Investors we spoke to were extremely excited about the quality of our product and team and were impressed at the success we had with our Penn State Campus Ambassador Program. We raised over a million dollars in seed funding from renowned angel investors, including Mark Cuban. Over the next year, we recreated the Penn State excitement at various campuses, including the University of Texas and USC. We formed partnerships with celebrities and professional sports teams, including the Sacramento Kings. We continuously innovated to stay competitive in the social app space, adding features like “Journeys,” which allowed users to temporarily share their location with their entire friend list, similar to a Snapchat story.
In 2015, we sold the app to Mark Cuban Companies, integrating of our technology into their portfolio. During my three years at Tag, I acquired skills that I carry with me to every new endeavor: scrappiness, self-sufficiency, perseverance, and determination.