Messaging app Glimpse Labs shuts down as cofounder departs for new startup

Glimpse Labs, an ephemeral messaging app focused on teenagers, has shut down, VentureBeat has learned.

“Glimpse wound down,” Glimpse Labs cofounder and chief technology officer Elissa Shevinsky told VentureBeat in an interview today. “I have open-sourced the code.”

Shevinsky originally established the startup in mid-2013 with former Business Insider chief technology officer Pax Dickinson, who came under fire as a result of several tweets earlier that year.

Shevinsky is now part of the Mach37 Cyber-Security Accelerator as cofounder and chief executive of a new startup, JeKuDo Privacy Co., which is focused on providing easy-to-use privacy tools, including a group-messaging app, according to a description on the accelerator’s website. Shevinsky also has a book, entitled “Lean Out,” coming out later this year.

“It’s actually really quite wonderful,” Shevinsky said of Glimpse’s closure.

Focusing on teenagers — a goal for the startup for the past several months — proved to be difficult, she said. (Tiffany Zhong, who was brought on as a Glimpse Labs cofounder when the emphasis shifted to teens, has left for Product Hunt.) There was “drama” and “baggage” at the startup, too, Shevinsky said.

Competitors include heavily funded Snapchat, as well as a slew of other startups, like Telegram and Wickr.

Above: Ephemeral messaging app Glimpse on iOS

Image Credit: AngelList

The Glimpse Labs website currently shows that there are “3,475 people in line” to use the app.

Glimpse Labs had raised less than $250,000. Investors include Kelly Hoey, Gene Hoffman, Bob Kohn

Shevinsky talks more about the Glimpse’s shutdown, as well as the Ellen Pao case, in Ep. 46 of VentureBeat’s “What to Think” podcast, which will appear shortly on iTunes and SoundCloud.