From $1,000 Side Project to 9 Million Users: How Untappd Built the Social Network for Beer

Greg Avola and Tim Mather met on Twitter in 2007. They'd never met in person.

Greg was a software engineer in Massachusetts. Tim was a web designer in California. They did some freelance work together remotely, discovered they both loved craft beer, and hatched an idea: What if Foursquare, but for beer?

In 2010, with a $1,000 investment from Greg, they launched Untappd—a check-in app where users could log beers, rate them, and see what their friends were drinking.

Then they kept their day jobs. For five more years.

Greg and Tim built Untappd on nights and weekends while supporting their families with full-time employment elsewhere. It wasn't until Next Glass acquired Untappd in 2016 that they finally quit their day jobs and went all-in.

Today, Untappd has over 9 million registered users, nearly 1 billion beer check-ins, and 392,000 monthly organic visitors. It proves that side projects, built patiently, can become category-defining platforms.

He pitched the idea to Tim Mather, and they built the first version with Greg's $1,000 investment. Untappd launched in 2010 as a side project—neither founder quit their day job.

The constraint became an advantage. Without pressure to monetize quickly or chase hockey-stick growth, they focused on building something their community loved. Feature by feature, user by user, Untappd grew.

What The Numbers Tell Us

User-Generated Content at Scale: Nearly 1 billion check-ins means massive amounts of user-generated content. This fresh, authentic content signals relevance to search engines.

Pages for Every Beer: With millions of beers in the database, Untappd has a page for virtually every beer someone might search for. Each page includes ratings, reviews, check-in data, and brewery information.

B2B Search Capture: "Untappd for Business" captures searches from bars and breweries looking for menu management tools—a valuable commercial keyword that converts to paying customers.

Why This Model Works

Consumer Data → Business Value: Untappd for Business transforms consumer check-in data into tools breweries and bars will pay for. What beers sell? What do customers rate highly? This data has direct commercial value.

Freemium at Scale: The free app attracts millions of users. A small percentage paying $4.99/month for premium features creates meaningful revenue without gating core functionality.

Network Effects: More users attract more businesses. More businesses attract more users. The marketplace becomes more liquid and valuable over time.

The Content Flywheel

User-Generated Database: Every beer in Untappd was added by users. This community contribution created a database of millions of beers—far more comprehensive than any editorial team could build.

The Badge Gamification: Untappd's badge system gamifies drinking. Unlock badges for trying new styles, visiting breweries, or drinking seasonal beers. This drives engagement, retention, and generates shareable content.

Social Features Match Culture: Craft beer culture is social—people share discoveries, debate styles, and visit breweries together. Untappd's features (friends, toasts, check-in sharing) matched how enthusiasts already behaved.

Here's what Untappd taught me: You don't need to go all-in from day one. Sometimes the best strategy is patient building on the side.

Greg and Tim met online, never having worked in the same room. They invested $1,000 and built nights and weekends for five years. They didn't quit their day jobs until an acquisition made it possible.

The result? Nine million users, nearly a billion check-ins, and the definitive platform for beer discovery. All built with patience, consistency, and genuine love for the product.

The core insight: You don't need to risk everything. You don't need venture funding. You don't need to quit your job. You need an idea, the discipline to work on it consistently, and the patience to let compound growth work.

What side project could you start building tonight?