18 KiB
History
It's the 28th of April 2014, the day Blendle was born. Marten and Alexander expected a few friends and partners to show up in an old warehouse in Amsterdam for their 'launch' party. 30 minutes before the start, the room filled with cameras and reporters. More then enough people were interested to see and hear what they came up with. Even PowNews sent a reporter:
A little rewind: in 2011, Marten found himself in a bookstore, a bit frustrated, looking at a magazine (as reenacted beautifully in this picture below). He was frustrated that he had to buy the whole magazine, whereas he only wanted to read one article from it. The first idea for Blendle was born and was called MyMagazine. He started talking to a lot of people in the media world, including Alexander. Alexander wasn't convinced yet.
In mid-2012, Marten asked Jort to make the first sketches and wireframes.
June 2012, these are the first sketches of Blendle:
Alexander and Marten stay in touch and, after seeing the first sketches, Alexander sees the potential and decides to join. Together they have an 'office' in the staircase of the science centre Nemo in Amsterdam. With the prototypes and Alexander on board, the conversations with the publishers actually start to get interesting. Alexander and Marten take all the feedback and criticism from the publishers back to their 'office' and keep improving the product.
In September 2013, Blendle received ****100,000 euros from a fund for innovation in journalism.
5 September 2013: First announcement of Blendle in the Dutch TV show DWDD:
28 April 2014: Launch in NL
In the meantime, Blendle got an office upgrade and moved to the Jaarbeurs in the beautiful Utrecht. It looks small in the picture below. It was.
On October 26 2014 Blendle announces a ****3 million Investment from Axel Springer and The New York Times. A pretty big deal for us.
Here’s the press release from Alexander: https://medium.com/on-blendle/today-our-journalistic-startup-got-backed-by-the-new-york-times-and-axel-springer-8857c70832e4
RTL interviewed Alex at the office in the Jaarbeurs:
12 March 2015: The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post are in:
12 September 2015: Blendle DE goes live
Marten announcing the launch: https://medium.com/on-blendle/after-successful-test-blendle-deutschland-to-go-live-in-two-weeks-ffc02a813aa8
Marten - in German - about the launch; https://medium.com/zu-blendle/artikel-kiosk-blendle-ist-jetzt-in-deutschland-live-cd8aa855a9d9
10 December 2015: We announce our beta in the US of A.
https://medium.com/zu-blendle/europe-s-favorite-journalism-startup-is-coming-to-america-206daa9c912d
1 March 2016: Launch of native android app
We did a PR thingy (which worked really well): 24h beta. https://androidworld.nl/apps/blendle-beta-applicatie-24-uur-lang-te-downloaden/
https://androidworld.nl/apps/blendle-android-officieel/
https://www.bright.nl/app-van-de-week/app-van-de-week-blendle-voor-android
https://www.villamedia.nl/artikel/blendle-lanceert-android-app
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.blendle.app&hl=nl
23 March 2016 US BETA Launch:
Wall Street Journal item:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywSsQIOj99c&t=3s
FOX: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljw0icGxF1g
http://www.nu.nl/internet/4235416/blendle-lanceert-betaversie-in-verenigde-staten.html
August 2016: 1 million people have a Blendle account:
https://medium.com/on-blendle/one-million-6390860c2a34
December 2016: Christmas Party
12 January 2017: Launch of Premium:
Alexander announching the launch: https://medium.com/@AlexanderNL/we-hebben-het-afgelopen-jaar-in-het-geheim-toegewerkt-naar-dit-moment-vandaag-lanceren-we-blendle-5b10959803a5
Various platforms report on Premium
Rick's vlog that day:
In this vlog, Rick explains what Premium is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15gbuy7fkTE
The gif that was put in the app:
6 April 2017: Nikkei (Financial Times) and INKEF Capital invest in Blendle:
http://www.nu.nl/internet/4599873/eigenaar-financial-times-investeert-in-digitale-kiosk-blendle.html
https://startupjuncture.com/2017/04/07/financial-times-invests-blendle/
April 2017: Blankie steps back
http://blog.blendle.io/post/159268405976/naast-zakelijk-nieuws-we-hebben-bij-blendle-weer
https://www.businessinsider.nl/oprichter-marten-blankesteijn-verlaat-blendle-ik-word-dit-jaar-vader/
Summer 2017: Slimming down
https://www.emerce.nl/nieuws/blendle-slankt-af
September 2017: Work and surf trip to Morocco
Q3 and Q4 2017: Working hard on improving the product
11th January 2018: Audio Launch
Alexander explaining Blendle Audio (dutch):
Behind the scenes:
Jeroen in the first 'studio', saying Hey FNAME 500 times.
February 2018: Good numbers:
February 2018: First big marketing campaign
Commercial:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0snvmuXDVc
Abri (outdoor) campaign:
March 2018: Weekend in Terschelling.
May 2018: 4 million euro investment:
https://medium.com/@AlexanderNL/investering-van-4-miljoen-voor-blendle-a927b9bca4ef
https://www.businessinsider.nl/blendle-alexander-klopping-investering-morten-strunge/
————-
UvNL en gouden pen
http://www.nu.nl/media/4232234/laatste-interview-joost-zwagerman-meest-gelezen-blendle-in-2015.html
http://nos.nl/artikel/2022756-journalist-olaf-koens-wint-gouden-pen-voor-artikel-mh17.html
Blendle Trending Live: https://medium.com/on-blendle/blendle-trending-design-details-61c5c64ac6aa
Launch of native iOS app
DE Launch: Marten on the launch: https://medium.com/on-blendle/pay-per-story-platform-blendle-goes-live-in-germany-37b53dbf360b
Awards/prices/praise
Dutch Design Awards
https://www.dutchdesignawards.nl/nl/gallery/service-systems/blendle/
Mercur d'Or 2016:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrJkY1oD_as
iCulture award 2014 (iOS, Blendle Trending): 1st place Best Newcomer 2014: http://www.adformatie.nl/nieuws/iculture-awards-2014-voor-de-beste-apps-van-2014-bekend and https://www.iculture.nl/iculture-awards/2014-awards/
iCulture award 2015 (iOS, Blendle Trending): 3rd place for Best Dutch App: https://www.iculture.nl/iculture-awards/2015-awards/#beste_nl2015
iCulture award 2016 (iOS, Blendle app): 1st place Best Dutch App 2016: https://www.iculture.nl/iculture-awards/#beste_nl2016
2016: Game Changer Award: https://www.ecommercenews.nl/thuiswinkel-awards-2016-bolcom-beste-webwinkel/ and http://m.thuiswinkelawards.nl/nl/wat-kan-ik-winnen/vakprijs-game-changer-award
Talks by Blendle people:
Koen Bollen on the Architecture
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oid1raHVjoQ
Koen Bollen on Kubernetes (our current infrastructure)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ypxg7tlYCI
Jeffrey on Data behind Headlines:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgGhLfRTTwc
Eric on Building smooth and responsive UI with Texture
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XA_NkUbu9WA
Nice partnerships
NS
Vodafone
Funny/cool/interesting articles/vids/pics
Frederic Filloux from Monday Note: https://mondaynote.com/blendle-is-up-to-something-big-568d82e249d
https://nieuwejournalistiek.nl/startup-blendle/2015/02/06/ze-komen-in-onze-kranten-knippen/
Alexander after 1 year live in NL: https://medium.com/on-blendle/blendle-a-radical-experiment-with-micropayments-in-journalism-365-days-later-f3b799022edc and in german: https://medium.com/zu-blendle/blendle-7c5f55c75c3d
Jarjour on what happens when he asked the germans to pay for journalism: https://medium.com/zu-blendle/zwei-charts-wie-keine-anderen-oder-was-passiert-wenn-man-menschen-f%C3%BCr-journalismus-um-geld-86973e2403e7
Marten, on the fact that Germany is doing well: https://medium.com/zu-blendle/artikel-kiosk-blendle-w%C3%A4chst-in-deutschland-viermal-schneller-als-in-holland-6abd949935a8
Jort in 2014 on how we designed the iTunes of journalism: https://medium.com/@jortdevries/how-we-designed-the-itunes-of-journalism-46bf61c9e603
TNW conference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDaT8SEBPG0
Dit is Blendle vid NL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZj58jnBz1A
Das ist Blendle vid DE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srblsKNceuk
DWDD micropayments: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oid1raHVjoQ
RTL nieuws investment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3q3vVKIq6Lk
GeenStijl reportage bij launch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEGmkpF57a0
Haat berichtjes:
http://www.adformatie.nl/blog/zeepbel-blendle-loopt-leeg (dutch)
Vertrek NRC
http://daskapital.nl/2017/03/luidt_nrc_het_einde_van_blendl.html (dutch)
https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2017/03/07/waarom-nrc-stopt-met-blendle-a1549164 (dutch)
http://www.quotenet.nl/Nieuws/Dit-is-waarom-Quote-anders-dan-NRC-wel-bij-Blendle-blijft-192789
https://speld.nl/2017/03/08/nrc-stopt-blendle-gemakkelijk-omzeilen-betaalmuur-is-toekomst/
General sources:
http://blog.blendle.io/archive
https://nieuwejournalistiek.nl/startup-blendle/ (dutch)
Work at Blendle
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