Jelly was a Q&A platform app which was created by Jelly Industries, a search-engine company founded and led by

Biz Stone Christopher Isaac "Biz" Stone (born March 10, 1974) is an American entrepreneur who is a co-founder of Twitter, among other tech companies. Stone was the creative director at Xanga from 1999-2001. Stone co-founded Jelly (app), Jelly, with Ben Fin ...

, one of

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

's co-founders. In March 2017, Jelly was acquired by

Pinterest Pinterest is an American social media service for publishing and discovery of information in the form of digital Bulletin board, pinboards. This includes recipes, home, style, motivation, and inspiration on the Internet using image sharing. Pint ...

for an undisclosed amount. Jelly differentiated itself from other Q&A platforms such as

Quora Quora is an American social question-and-answer website and online knowledge market headquartered in Mountain View, California. It was founded on June 25, 2009, and made available to the public on June 21, 2010. Users can post questions, answ ...

and

ChaCha Cha-Cha, Cha Cha, ChaCha or Chacha may refer to: Music *Cha-cha-cha (dance), a dance of Cuban origin *Cha-cha-cha (music), a genre of Cuban music *Cha Cha (album), ''Cha Cha'' (album), a 1978 album by Herman Brood & His Wild Romance *Cha Cha (sou ...

by relying on visual imagery to steer people to getting better answers from within and outside their social networks. In particular, it encouraged people to use photos to ask questions.

History

AllThingsD AllThingsD.com was a US online publication that specialized in technology and startup company news, analysis and coverage. It was founded in 2007 by Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg, as an extension of the annual meetings ''D: All Things Digital C ...

'' reported on March 28, 2013, that, according to sources,

co-founder

was close to launching a native mobile app called Jelly. On April 1, 2013, Stone wrote the company's first blog post, giving only vague information about the product. A ''

TechCrunch TechCrunch is an American global online newspaper focusing on topics regarding high tech, high-tech and Startup company, startup companies. It was founded in June 2005 by Archimedes Ventures, led by partners Michael Arrington and Keith Teare. I ...

'' writer inferred that the product would be targeted at do-gooders on the go. Other news publications also published speculation about the app. In May 2013, while still in stealth mode, Jelly raised

Series A funding A series A is the name typically given to a company's first significant round of venture capital financing. It can be followed by the word round, investment or financing. The name refers to the class of preferred stock sold to investors in excha ...

from

Spark Capital Spark Capital Partners, LLC is a multi-stage venture capital firm based in the U.S. with operations in San Francisco, New York, and Boston. Spark is a generalist VC firm with a portfolio that spans verticals such as consumer internet, enterpris ...

SV Angel SV Angel Management LLC (SVA) is an American venture capital firm based in San Francisco, California. The firm focuses on investments related to the AI, software and IT sectors. Background Until mid-2009, Ron Conway made most of his investme ...

Square In geometry, a square is a regular polygon, regular quadrilateral. It has four straight sides of equal length and four equal angles. Squares are special cases of rectangles, which have four equal angles, and of rhombuses, which have four equal si ...

CEO

Jack Dorsey Jack Patrick Dorsey (born November 19, 1976) is an American businessperson, who is a co-founder of Twitter, Inc. and its CEO during 2007–2008 and 2015–2021, as well as co-founder, principal executive officer and chairman of Block, Inc. (deve ...

Reid Hoffman Reid Garrett Hoffman (born August 5, 1967) is an American internet entrepreneur, venture capitalist, podcaster, and author. Hoffman is the co-founder and former executive chairman of LinkedIn, a business-oriented social network used primarily ...

Al Gore Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American former politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. He previously served as ...

Bono Paul David Hewson (born 10 May 1960), known by the nickname Bono ( ), is an Irish singer-songwriter and activist. He is a founding member, the lead vocalist, and primary lyricist of the rock band U2. Bono is known for his impassioned voca ...

, and others. The app release was announced, thereby bringing Jelly out of stealth mode, on January 7, 2014. The announcement was picked up by much of the technology press and mainstream press. Stone explained to ''

'' that the primary goal of Jelly was not to help people asking questions but to improve empathy among people answering questions by making them feel helpful to people around them. In an interview with ''

Bloomberg News Bloomberg News (originally Bloomberg Business News) is an international news agency headquartered in New York City and a division of Bloomberg L.P. Content produced by Bloomberg News is disseminated through Bloomberg Terminals, Bloomberg T ...

'', Stone said that he never intended to create a company with Jelly, and that it was largely accidental. The app was reviewed by Rachel Metz for ''

Technology Review ''MIT Technology Review'' is a bimonthly magazine wholly owned by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It was founded in 1899 as ''The Technology Review'', and was re-launched without "''The''" in its name on April 23, 1998, under then pu ...

''. ''The Next Web'' published advice for how brands could use the new app effectively. On January 23, 2014, Jelly announced that it had raised Series B funding from

Greylock Partners Greylock Partners is one of the oldest venture capital firms, founded in 1965, with committed capital of over $3.5 billion under management. The firm focuses on early-stage companies in consumer and enterprise software. History Greylock wa ...

. On March 31, 2014, Jelly updated its iOS app to the 1.1 version that allows users create questions using a map and a specific location. On March 8, 2017, Pinterest said it had acquired Jelly Industries.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jelly (App) Pinterest acquisitions Human-based computation Defunct social networking services American companies established in 2013 2017 mergers and acquisitions

History

See also

References