Greg Avola: The Pioneer Behind Untappd's Revolutionary Social Discovery App

In a recent interview, Greg Avola, the co-founder of Untappd, reminisced about the app's humble beginnings. 'So we combined the two loves that we had, social networking and Foursquare, and Untappd was born,' he recalls in the 'Untappd Drinkumentary' released to celebrate the app's 10-year anniversary.

As one of the early adopters of Foursquare, Avola, a software engineer, was inspired by the platform's ability to allow users to check-in to places, share information with friends, and earn interesting badges and points. In 2009, Foursquare was launched by Dennis Crowley, who previously sold his location-based startup Dodgeball to Google.

Avola saw an opportunity to create a similar app but with beer as the primary focus. This led him to develop Untappd in 2010, when social media was just beginning to gain traction. 'Drinking beer is a very social activity, but there was never an online representation of that for this particular endeavor,' Avola notes.

Today, Untappd has become a staple among craft beer enthusiasts, allowing users to check-in to beers, rate them, and share reviews with the world while earning loyalty badges. The app's success can be attributed to its founder's vision and perseverance in creating a unique social discovery experience for beer drinkers.

Greg avola