Clyp co-founders Tyson Ferguson (left) and Jordan Patapoff (right).
Jordan Patapoff couldn’t find what he was looking for. A guitarist, Patapoff had just created a riff and wanted to share it online. He scoured the Internet in search of a way to record and publicize it, but didn’t see a viable option.
Patapoff realized that if he wanted one, he’d have to build it -- and build it he did. He’s one of the co-founders and the leading engineer of Clyp, a sound-sharing service that bills itself “the Imgur of Audio.” The description is a nod to the app’s initial inspiration: just as Imgur hosts a gallery of user-submitted images, Clyp is an online library of recordings to which anyone can contribute.
The process is simple: a user records sound with two presses of a button, plays it back, then enters a title, description, and/or hashtag to share the clip on Facebook, Twitter, or Reddit. Users can also browse other clips, which they search for by hashtag. (“Down the road, we plan to beef up our search abilities,” Patapoff said.)
The app, which co-founder Tyson Ferguson said is “solely focused on the creation and sharing of original audio content,” fosters a variety of potential use cases, ranging from the creative to the religious to the academic.
“Spoken word is a huge category, which can include podcasts, speeches, comedy, politics and religion. We also see a lot of people using it for educational purposes. A student might record a lecture to use for study material on the next exam, or someone trying to learn a new language will record themselves practicing speaking,” Patapoff said.
Users aren’t required to register an account with the app; however, they must sign up if they want to make clips private, download clips, or sync their clips across the app and Web.
Patapoff and Ferguson plan to expand this tiered-privilege model, eventually incorporating a paid subscription option.
“Clyp will always be free to use. However, we’re in the process of building out the infrastructure for a premium subscription model. This will essentially add a paid tier with additional features and benefits,” said Ferguson.
The startup consists of the co-founding duo (Patapoff (who heads engineering), Ferguson (who heads product design and marketing), and two developers specializing in iOS, Android, and front-end. Currently self-funding, Patapoff and Ferguson are seeking investors.
“For the near future, our plans with Clyp are to raise a round of funding allowing us to grow the team and accelerate feature development,” Patapoff said. “We have a rather aggressive roadmap, even as a small bootstrapped company.”
