Please, Check In Responsibly

Roughly half a decade ago, the only mobile check-in apps you could find were general ones, like Foursquare and Gowalla. These days, on the other hand, they seem to be popping up in specific, peculiar markets. One of the more recent mobile check-in apps to appear on the scene is Untappd: "a new way to socially share and explore the world of beer with your friends and the world," according to its website. 

On Untappd, which has roughly a quarter million users who have collectively checked in 13 million times, users "check in" to what beer they happen to be drinking, as well as where they are drinking it. When they do so, the app shares the information on a feed, where users can see what and where their friends are drinking.

Recently, I sat down with 27-year-old Untappd Co-Founder, CTO and Developer Greg Avola at Hell's Kitchen's The Pony Bar, one of his favorite places to drink in the city. As we sipped Imperial Pumpkin Ale from Brooklyn's Kelso Beer Co., Avola explained how Untappd came about, as well as where he sees it going in the future.

Avola and his partner Tim Mather -- who's the CEO and Designer of the app -- founded the startup in October of 2010. While each was looking for a potential business partner, the duo met on Twitter. They both knew they wanted to make a location-based service app, but at first, they weren't sure in which market they wanted to create it. 

"We were thinking about industries that are very social, but don't have an online social presence," Avola said. "Beer drinking is very social, and the activity has never really existed online. [...] So, we thought to ourselves, why don't we incorporate the technology of the check-in to the social activity of beer drinking?" 

Currently, Avola and Mather run the app on their own, and they do so bicoastally, with the former based in New York City and the latter in Los Angeles. Avola also has a full-time job in addition to developing Untappd: he's a web developer at ABC News.

Though he acknowledges the uniqueness of Untappd in relation to other mobile check-in apps, Avola insists that the current version of his app is far from the final product. 

"We want to have a better system to connect the user with the brewery, and also the venue," Avola said. "A lot of times, people say to me, 'Where can I find beer X?' We want to provide a platform that gives you where to find it, where your friends are, who's serving it right now, and where is it on draught as opposed to bottles."

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