Andy McCune and Alfonso Cobo didn’t know that when they teamed up to create the app Unfold, they would create one of the most widely used apps this year, with over 9 million users and recently acquired by Squarespace.
It all stared with Alfonso Cobo being a design student at Parson’s School of Design in Manhattan, where he created a preliminary app to display his portfolio work. Later he pivoted his idea, realizing the potential of Instagram stories for his app. The app was still struggling however, until he partnered with Andy McCune over Instagram DM’s.
Andy McCune had created another very successful app, called Earth, which displays the most liked photos from all over the world based on location.
After he partnered with Cobo, their new project began to get traction from influencers on Instagram. The app became an overnight sensation when Instagram released question stickers for stories, allowing followers to ask influencers what app they used to create their stories.
The app relied on word-of-mouth marketing to grow, which was very successful. They had a lean marketing budget, and were able to keep costs down by using influencers to recommend their product.
Unfold was recently valued at over 10 Million dollars, and acquired by Squarespace to expand capabilities. Now users can subscribe for full access to the app for $19.99 a year.
Wow what an incredible story. Goes to show you you never know where little ideas can lead a person. Also the power of reaching out even on sometinng as in-formal as instagram DM.
Never heard of Unfold, but as someone who is currently in the process of finding applications to uniquely present my work and portfolio, I had to check it out. This app sounds amazing, and I will most certainly be checking it out in the future. Nice!