Secret, the anonymous gossip app, is shutting down

Secret, the anonymous social app, which created waves all through last year, will be shutting down its operations after 16 months. Secret had raised around $25 million in funding. The news was confirmed by company co-founder and CEO David Byttow who made the announcement in a blog post he shared on Medium and also on Twitter. https://twitter.com/davidbyttow/status/593499158117355520 The blog reads, “After a lot of thought and consultation with our board, I’ve decided to shut down Secret.” He also vented out his grief and stated, “This has been the hardest decision of my life and one that saddens me deeply. Unfortunately, Secret does not represent the vision I had when starting the company, so I believe it’s the right decision for myself, our investors and our team.” The co-founder points out that all money is not lost and he will spend the next couple of weeks doing what is right to wind down Secret gracefully and would also, return the money to investors. According to a report by The New York Times, Secret had recently raised $25 million to work on its smartphone app but news had broken out that David Byttow and Chrys Bader, founders of Secret, had sold a part of their stake in the company for $6 million and that Byttow later bought, a Ferrari. The blog post elaborates more about the team, and states that the product was built by its team members and was used by over 15 million people and pushed the boundaries of traditional social media. After app usage declined, Byttow told employees that the company was closing and handed out severance packages, the people close to the matter said, points out the report. It also shares that the fact that employees were unaware about the sale and instead, found out on Secret. “Secret, Inc. still has a significant amount of invested capital, but our investors funded the team and the product, and I believe the right thing to do is to return the money rather than attempt to pivot,” Byttow adds. “Innovation requires failure, and I believe in failing fast in order to go on and make only new and different mistakes.”