We’ve had a lot of fun with Textspresso this past month. Almost overnight it became part of our company culture and helped us show off our software applications to thousands of people. It’s been featured in 50+ online articles and our video on YouTube has been viewed over 21,000 times. However, what really made us feel like we’d entered into the realm of tech pop culture was when we saw this comic strip made by The Linux Foundation. In addition to being really funny it accurately depicts daily interactions here at the office. When we’re not working we’re texting. When we’re not texting we’re drinking coffee. We’re addicted to both. We’re going through about 5 pounds of beans a week! But jittery? We’re not jittery! Who said that?
We’re now back to the business of bringing our apps to the masses. We’re involved in some really fun projects this summer that we’ll be telling you about soon. In the meantime tell us what you think about the comic and the Linux operating system in the comments. It’s time for some more coffee.
Textspresso. It’s a beautiful thing. In order to combine our cloud texting service with Seattle’s technology and coffee cultures, we created a machine that sends and receives text messages while simultaneously making a coffee. You heard right. We’ve got a robotic barista in the house. Did we mention there’s also a warming plate to keep your coffee warm? Once that feature was completed we decided to take things to the next level. We added an edible ink jet printer that provided a truly over the top touch. The build was completed with lots of head-scratching and weekend work. It was worth it. We’re having trouble keeping beans on hand and our engineers are working through the night.
We are not in the business of making these machines commercially. This is the only machine of its kind and it’ll be living right here in our Seattle headquarters. We created it to show off the power of our cloud texting technology. Simply put, our service allows you to send and receive text messages from your computer using your main mobile number. It’s very simple…building Textspresso was not.
If you have an Android powered smartphone you can go to zipwhip.com now to download our apps and start utilizing our technology. As for the Textspresso, if you’re interested in making one of your own we’ll be open sourcing all of the code and build plans in the near future. Just be sure to send us some video of your creation! Until then you’ll have to stick with those over-priced Americanos from Starbucks.
We just made human baristas old school.
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We had a lot of fun last Wednesday when Kat, Gayle, and Allison from Seattle Coffee Gear stopped by the Zipwhip office. They came over to shoot some video of our Textspresso machine in action for their blog. By using a one shot video technique we had plenty of time to joke around and have fun. Their engaging personalities and vast knowledge of everything associated with coffee culture make it easy to understand why their videos have amassed more than 5 million YouTube views. They are coffee superstars.
When the video was shot we weren’t quite done calibrating the machine. It’s now completely dialed in and operational. The printer was by far the most challenging piece of the puzzle in case you were wondering. A few tears may have been shed. When we release our our own video you’ll be able to see it in action so check back soon. Until then you can sign up for our service at zipwhip.com. And don’t forget that we’ll be open sourcing all of our build plans for this machine in a future post if you’re feeling motivated.
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The above video is an unedited look at KOMO’s Molly Shen interviewing our own John Lauer.
Things might never be the same in the Zipwhip offices again. Our Textspresso machine has caught the attention of coffee drinkers everywhere. This past Monday we brought the first ever text-enabled espresso machine into our office. For the entire afternoon and evening the machine was pieced together. The following day it took some last minute programming and a touch of manual labor (that’s right, manual labor at a tech company) to get the machine operational and shined up for an afternoon visit from GeekWire’s John Cook.
Just before John arrived we got the machine grinding beans and pouring high octane java via text message. John ended up staying for several hours. His non-stop energy made him a lot of fun to be around. As the co-founder of GeekWire, thesource for tech news in the Seattle area, it’s very obvious he loves what he does. After a full demo of the Textspresso machine he took in a demonstration of our cloud-texting service. His article on our geeky creation went live on Thursday morning around 10:00 a.m. After that things got a little nutty.
By Friday morning the story was picking up steam. Our one-of-a-kind machine was featured on NBC’s bay area online affiliate and engadget. That’s when Seattle’s own KOMO News came calling. They interviewed John Lauer for a 2:30 KOMO News Radio 97.7 spot and featured the Textspresso coverage as a lead-in story for the evening news with Molly Shen. The video of that segment can be seen here. Since then #textspresso has gone global on twitter and we’re left scratching our heads as to what people are saying about our company from across the world.
We’ll have our own video featuring Textspresso early next week on this blog. We can’t wait to show you how gorgeous and unique this thing is. Until then we have a friendly reminder; We don’t sell Textspresso machines. We are a cloud texting company. That means you can text-message seamlessly across all of your devices from your main mobile number. If you have an Android powered phone, go to the Zipwhip homepage to download our free service today.
“I think this is the coolest invention in terms of geek culture and coffee culture colliding. It’s awesome.” – John Cook
We’re very excited to announce our new partnership with U.S. Cellular. This partnership allows all U.S. Cellular customers access to a co-branded version of Zipwhip’s web texting portal. The portal is accessible from the U.S. Cellular website or by going directly to uscellular.com/webtotext. Customers can now send text messages to friends and family on all major U.S. mobile networks. More of the benefits and details are available in a press release that went out yesterday.
As you watch this video you’ll notice how incredibly fast and easy it is to send a text from you computer–that’s the beauty of U.S. Cellular Web To Text. Cristy Burgan, our VP of Sales, introduces the video. She played a big role in bringing this partnership to life, so it was very fitting to include her in this blog. Congrats to her and the rest of the Zipwhip and U.S. Cellular team members. This is another way that cloud texting is making communication better.
TechCrunch’d (noun): 1) The act of getting published on the popular website techcrunch.com 2) A quick way to see increased traffic to your website.
At 9:00 a.m. this morning, we were fortunate enough to be featured on techcrunch.com. TechCrunch Gadgets editor John Biggs posted the story, which is about our new user sign up flag. Included in his submission is the video portion of our Monday (2/20/12) blog entry. According to TechCrunch, the piece is now trending. It drove a significant amount of traffic to our website, and we decided to share our reaction with all of you. Enjoy.
