Trutap

About Trutap

In the fall of 2007, a full year before the launch of the Apple App Store, a new mobile company called Trutap took the stage at the TechCrunch40 conference. Led by co-founder and CEO Doug Richard, the company had a compelling vision for the pre-smartphone era. Trutap's product was a downloadable mobile application that aimed to be the central hub for a young person's entire social life. The service aggregated disparate platforms into one interface. It allowed users to access major IM networks, send group messages, and post text and pictures to various blogs and social media sites. In a time before the integrated ecosystems of iOS and Android, Trutap solved a real pain point, particularly for its target market of 18-to-24-year-olds who wanted constant connection. The service found significant traction, especially in India, Asia, and Africa. By late 2008, the company had grown to 250,000 active users and was developing a second version of its platform. However, the company's trajectory was cut short by a major external event. Trutap's primary investor was a casualty of the 2008 global financial crisis and was forced to pull its funding. With no time to secure new venture capital in a frozen market, the promising mobile aggregator was left with no path forward, and the company shut down.