Cappuccino - Share Private Audio Stories with Friends

Cappuccino: A New Approach to Social Audio

Cappuccino is often contrasted with Clubhouse, yet the company has been refining its application concept for several years. Its CEO maintains a neutral stance regarding Clubhouse itself.

Indeed, Cappuccino presents a unique social application experience. It has steadily gained a dedicated user base, particularly following the viral spread of a video on TikTok.

Focus on Personal Podcast Creation

The startup’s core mission is to facilitate the recording of podcasts with close acquaintances. Podcasts have experienced a surge in popularity in recent years, offering on-demand audio content through subscriptions.

Initial podcast engagement often stems from specific interests. However, listeners frequently cite the personalities of the hosts as a primary reason for their continued enjoyment.

The Intimacy of the Audio Experience

The act of listening to a podcast provides a distinct form of content consumption. While extensive video viewing or social media following can offer insights, they differ significantly from the podcasting experience.

Spending hours listening to someone through headphones creates a uniquely intimate connection. A successful podcast fosters the feeling of a casual conversation among friends.

Despite this closeness, podcast hosts are typically not personal friends.

How Cappuccino Bridges the Gap

Cappuccino addresses this disconnect by enabling users to establish groups with friends and family. Within these groups, members can record brief audio messages – termed “beans” by the developers – sharing their thoughts for a few minutes.

Each morning, group participants receive a notification indicating their “morning cappuccino” is ready.

Playback begins with calming introductory music, followed by the audio messages from group members. This isn’t merely a sequence of voice notes; it’s designed to feel like a comforting blend of positive and engaging contributions from those you know.

Prioritizing Privacy and Close Connections

Cappuccino distinguishes itself as a social application centered on existing relationships. The platform doesn’t emphasize follower counts or public sharing.

Privacy is a fundamental design principle, with a focus on fostering interactions within established groups of friends and family.

The application shares similarities with Snapchat’s group stories, though Cappuccino’s primary inspiration lies in the world of podcasting.

Embrace Rapid Prototyping and Iteration

A conversation with Gilles Poupardin, co-founder and CEO of the company, revealed the origins of the application. Cappuccino represents not Poupardin’s initial venture into the startup world. He previously dedicated several years to Whyd, experiencing the complete startup lifecycle – securing initial funding, making pivotal strategic shifts, participating in Y Combinator, and ultimately deciding to close the business following a departure of the CTO.

Whyd previously explored the development of a voice-activated connected speaker, preceding the widespread adoption of Amazon’s Echo and Google’s Nest devices. Competing with major technology corporations is inherently challenging, particularly in the realm of hardware.

Subsequently, the Whyd team shifted focus to a platform enabling users to construct personalized voice assistants, but this endeavor also failed to gain significant traction.

During the summer of 2019, Olivier Desmoulin contacted Poupardin. At that time, Desmoulin was leading the design efforts at Jumbo, an application focused on enhancing online privacy.

“I was uncertain about launching another company – I had already pivoted Whyd fifteen times,” Poupardin explained.

However, they began discussions centered around podcasts, AirPods, and the broader potential of audio as the next frontier for social networking. The core concept was straightforward. While podcast listenership was growing, the number of individuals creating podcasts remained relatively low.

Several factors contribute to why more people don’t launch their own podcasts, despite frequent posting on platforms like Instagram and Snapchat:

• Podcasts typically involve lengthy content creation.
• The technical aspects of recording and distributing a podcast can be complex.
• Attracting an audience comprised of individuals unfamiliar with the creator presents a challenge.

Cappuccino aims to address these issues by prioritizing brevity, ease of use, and a personal touch. The intention is to deliver a superior experience for both audio creators and listeners.

The initial iteration of Cappuccino wasn’t a fully developed application, but rather a preliminary project. “We established a WhatsApp group, invited 10 to 15 participants, and requested they record voice memos and share them with Olivier,” Poupardin stated.

Each evening, Olivier Desmoulin would utilize GarageBand to compile a mix of the submitted voice memos. He would then distribute this compilation to the WhatsApp group with a message: “Your cappuccino is ready.”

Following encouraging feedback from group members, Poupardin and Desmoulin decided to proceed with developing a more app-like experience. Recognizing the difficulties of user acquisition for social applications, they prioritized rapid development to avoid investing time in a product with limited potential.

“We constructed the first version of the app within four days, leveraging a resourceful approach – we employed Airtable as the backend service,” Poupardin revealed.

Feedback from beta testers was again positive. They presented the application to investors and successfully secured $1.2 million in funding from Alexia Bonatsos (Dream Machine, and a former TechCrunch editor), SV Angel, Kevin Carter (Night Capital), Niv Shrug Capital, Jean de La Rochebrochard (Kima Ventures), Kevin Kuipers, Willy Braun, Marie Ekeland, Solomon Hykes (Docker’s founder), Pierre Valade (Sunrise and Jumbo Privacy’s founder), Moshe Lifschitz (Basement Fund), Anthony Marnell, Bryan Kim, Uncommon Projects, and numerous others.

Gawen Arab, who previously served as the CTO at Whyd, rejoined forces with Poupardin, illustrating a cyclical pattern. He now holds the position of co-founder and CTO at Cappuccino.

The Organic Growth of Cappuccino

The Cappuccino team has largely eschewed traditional methods of promotion, such as press releases and paid advertising. Their growth has been gradual, punctuated by notable periods of increased attention.

Last summer, Chris Messina, a prominent member of the Product Hunt community, initiated a post concerning Cappuccino. This occurred without any proactive effort from the startup to secure a feature on the platform. Nevertheless, the co-founders engaged actively with inquiries from Product Hunt users.

Subsequently, Cappuccino was highlighted in the Product Hunt newsletter, posed with the question, “The next big audio social network?” This inclusion resulted in an influx of new users to the application.

However, a significant surge in popularity began following a video shared by Brittany Kay Collier on TikTok several weeks ago. Collier alerted Poupardin via Instagram direct message regarding the video’s rapidly accumulating views. The video ultimately garnered approximately 3.8 million views and 850,000 likes.

Within two days, Poupardin extended a job offer to Collier. He privately hoped for her acceptance, and she, in turn, harbored a desire to join the Cappuccino team.

Over the recent weeks, Cappuccino has welcomed 225,000 new users. These users have established 130,000 groups and exchanged around one million audio stories.

Observing public discussions about Cappuccino on Twitter, the team perceives that the app is resonating with its core demographic. The most dedicated users appear to be young women in their twenties, seeking to maintain connections with friends who live far away.

Life transitions, such as college graduation and relocation, or the constraints imposed by the current pandemic, are contributing factors to this need for connection.

https://twitter.com/ameliaesque/status/1360986337948622855

Furthermore, new users demonstrate a willingness to utilize the recording feature and share their experiences, building on their familiarity with voice messaging features found in applications like WhatsApp and iMessage.

“Audio messages offer a unique medium, prompting users to share narratives distinct from those conveyed through photos on Instagram, Snaps, or videos on TikTok,” Poupardin explained.

The comparison to Clubhouse, which has already surpassed 8 million downloads, is inevitable. Poupardin outlined the differences in social networking structure, audio format, and target audience, asserting that sufficient space exists for multiple audio applications.

“Just as the video landscape includes platforms like YouTube, Twitch, and TikTok – each offering a different format – audio is likely to follow a similar trajectory,” Poupardin stated. The camera was once the defining hardware feature of smartphones, driving social app innovation, and audio now represents a logical progression.

He currently views other audio startups not as direct competitors, but as entities serving different needs. His vision is for Cappuccino to become a daily habit, a source of companionship replacing background music on platforms like Spotify. “It will provide support for those experiencing feelings of isolation,” he added.