Tiny Review was one of TechCrunch’s favorite startups from the third 500 Startups Accelerator class that graduated in February. Then it was touted as an “Instagram for Reviews,” allowing users to easily add text to images, and then link them to certain locations. Users could also share those photos out to various social networks, like Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook.
But a funny thing happened: The founding team realized that their users weren’t just posting reviews — they were using the app to add funny text to their pictures, which may or may not have been linked to a location or business, and create memes out of them. So the startup pivoted a little bit to go after that use case, and re-branded as Tiny Post.
In addition to the re-brand, TinyPost has been working on ways to allow its users to be even more creative with their tiny, um, posts. The startup saw that users were loading photos that were previously augmented in apps like Instagram or Camera Plus. Rather than having users add filters elsewhere and then import them into Tiny Post, the team has added a bunch of filters of its own, so they can do that work directly within the app.
It’s also added a bunch of new fonts, and allows users to move text around in the photo. Previously, the default font was League Gothic, which was perfect for the meme-type images that users were creating. But a wider range of fonts will now allow them to express themselves in new and interesting ways.
Tiny Post was founded by Dick Brouwer and Melissa Miranda, and has five employees (and one baby!!!) based in Palo Alto, Calif. The startup has raised a total of $300,000 in angel funding.