Meet Textr: the world’s only social network for conversations. We are the first platform where users feel comfortable chatting with anyone and everyone about whatever they want -- live chat the Oscars, discuss the Republican debate, argue over whose daughter Rey is.

Today’s social media apps don’t encourage discussion and engagement, especially about live events: Facebook is where people talk to friends only, Twitter is simply strangers yelling into open space, and Vine, Periscope, and Instagram are just places to dump your content, not engage with others.

Textr is the perfect solution for people looking to have real conversations in real-time, whether you want to talk with friends or people around the world. We are a social network combined with messaging apps, opening up a world of people who want to talk about the same things that interest you.

Want to give it a try? The iOS version of Textr is already live in the App Store, and our Android version will hit Google Play around May 2016. Early results from our iOS users have been massively successful: 15% of users open the app 100+ times during three separate events: during a YouTuber’s fan chat, the Oscars, and during a political debate. People love Textr!

What does your world with Textr look like? Read on!

Textr’s founder started working on the app in 2014 with the simple purpose of creating a better way to talk to people with common interests. There was no real-time experience out there for actual conversation. Yes, people live-Tweet events all the time, but it’s a very self-serving platform; most users don’t have an interest in engaging with others.

On Textr, you can browse and join any live discussion that interests you. Watching the season premier of Game of Thrones? Jump on Textr and talk to others who are doing the same. Once the conversation runs it’s course, the group is naturally deleted 24 hours after the last message is sent.

Where traditional group messaging requires an invite to the conversation, Textr gives everyone instant access to conversations that are of interest to them in real-time (although private groups are certainly an option).

Just like your other social networks, you can follow and friend profiles within the app and always stay up to date with their conversations.

Textr takes messaging and makes it work in a social network.

• Create a profile
• Follow/friend profiles that matter to you
• Join or create groups that appear on your homepage
• Push notifications that interest you
• Simply open the app and start talking to others with the same interests
• Ping feature (patent pending), a new form of hyperlocal marketing, automatically invites all followers of a business within a one-mile radius to a group chat. Great for pushing deals, easily getting people in groups for events and more.

Textr users will certainly have other types media accounts, so all you have to do is share a link on your Facebook, for example, and your friends can instantly join a group and talk with you. This can then lead to embedded groups on blogs, websites -- even on TV! That’s the power of Textr.

We provide three group types:

To prevent groups from becoming unruly with too many people and too much content, we limit groups to 250 people. Once that limit is reached, another group is created within the same post, thus enabling a group of thousands to all be interacting in a scalable and controlled way. The creator of the group can send a single message out to all groups under the same thread.

Textr also introduces “view only groups” where anyone can view the conversation, but only people invited can create content. Bye bye confusing hashtags and live Tweeting, hello live breakdowns by your favorite sports bloggers.

Instagram is for photos; Vine is for videos; Textr is for messages.

Who will you find on Textr? People like Jake, Laura, and NyeDev.

Jake is an 18-year-old high school student who loves politics and football. He goes on Textr to message with his friends about the Democrat/Republican debates and follows his local sports network station to message with other fans of his favorite sports team.

Laura is a 21-year-old college student who enjoys fashion, music, and hanging out with friends. She uses Textr to keep up with live fashion blogs from popular Textr stars who she can chat with every time a new blog is published. She also follows a few bars and restaurants near her college and enjoys getting exclusive deals “pinged” to her phone while she’s downtown. Laura is also heavily involved in campus activities and uses Textr to showcase events for her club on campus and communicate with the 250 club members.

NyeDev is an actual Textr user. He’s a YouTuber with a growing following who uses Textr as a personal way to interact with fans. His industry is ripe for this type of interaction as the celebrity of YouTubers is directly linked to their approachability and relatability. NyeDev said that Textr is exactly what he and his community have been looking for -- one place to talk together.
 

Another user said of Textr:

Textr launched in the App Store in October 2015. Prior to launch, we conducted a three-month Beta which included employees of Yahoo, Snapchat, and Google. We currently have:

Our early metrics are on par with other social media apps when they were at this stage in development. 15% of users open the app 100+ times during three separate events: during a YouTuber’s fan chat, the Oscars, and during a political debate.

These numbers grow every day. We’re looking to reach 1,000 daily active users by May through interest based marketing campaigns centered around March Madness, YouTubers interacting with fans, politics, fashion/lifestyle blogs, and Game of Thrones. This is the point at which exponential growth starts.

Our Ping feature is currently patent pending; should the patent be granted, this will be a game changer. Top apps like Twitter, Snapchat, and YikYak have been trying to monetize hyper-local communities. 

Up next: Make Textr one of the most used apps for communicating about the 2016 Summer Olympics. This is a perfect opportunity to showcase the advance live communication features of Textr and we intend on capitalizing on it.

In May, we will release the Android version of Textr, followed by a web platform later in the summer. By January 2017, we expect to have 1 million active users. To see how this translates into revenue and how you can get involved today, make sure to request access to the business plan tab of this profile.

Sam Getty, Founder & CEO 
Textr was founded by a 22-year-old senior at the University of Georgia, Sam Getty. Majoring in marketing and cognitive science, Sam is a born entrepreneur. In his sophomore year, he launched another startup called UnLeashed, a wireless dog leash application.

Sam created Textr because he found a need for it in his personal life. One night while sitting at home watching boxing, and being surrounding by family members who didn’t care a lick about the sport, Sam wished he could simply open an app and instantly message other people watching the same fight.

In true entrepreneurial fashion, Sam asked, “Why not be the person to create this app?” “Why not now?”

Sam has put together a diverse team around him, allowing him to maximize the impact of Textr and gain notable initial traction.

Ben Getty, CFO
Ben Getty is a strategy analyst at Accenture with prior startup experience at Course Hero. He holds a BS in business administration with a concentration in finance from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is also a former student in the Denning Technology and Management Program where he earned a minor in engineering and business.

Jesse Garcia, CSO 
Jesse has worked with multiple startups in the fields of marketing, talent acquisition, and recruitment. He most recently worked at firstPRO as an executive recruiter. Jesse manages all live events, partnerships, and pushing Textr to hit our daily active user goals.

VSII USA, Development
We partnered with VSII USA to build our iOS and Android apps. They have built phone applications for companies such as Newell Rubbermaid, Orbit, and American Express.