Russ Reiss

Cardiothoracic Surgeon

[Nateinthewild | Nate Luebbe @nateinthewild]

Good morning from Northern Utah, where the autumn weather is about the most beautiful I've ever seen. 😍

[Russ Reiss @RussReiss]

https://t.co/GSajXYYehH

[Nelson Epega @nelsonepega]

From Creator to Founder: The Rollercoaster Journey of Building Chatter Social

Man, what a journey it’s been so far.

Four years ago, I was just another creator, spending late nights on Clubhouse during the height of the pandemic. Like so many others, I was searching for connection, for community, for something meaningful. But what I found there wasn’t just connection—it was purpose.

Alongside my brother, Jonathan Bing, we built a nightly show that reached over 5 million people. Imagine that: 5 million lives touched by conversations that felt real and unfiltered, all on a platform that at its peak had 10 million monthly active users. Clubhouse was magic. But then the decline began. Watching the platform struggle, I couldn’t help but reflect: what made it great? What went wrong? And what could the future look like if we did things differently?

The Spark of Chatter
As a content creator, I understood the needs of both creators and users. I knew what excited people, what kept them engaged, and what made them leave. Clubhouse had tapped into something special, but it had missed the mark on scalability and sustainability.

By September 2023, I couldn’t stop thinking about the potential for something new—something that brought back the magic of real-time interaction but made it scalable, engaging, and sticky. And so, I set out to build Chatter Social.

But I wasn’t a tech founder. I didn’t have a background in software development or a network of Silicon Valley insiders. What I did have was determination and the belief that if I could bring the right people together, we could build something extraordinary.

Building the Team
The journey to build Chatter started with assembling a team. Through my network from my days on Clubhouse, I found Samir, my first CTO. He believed in the vision and was instrumental in getting the project off the ground. Shortly after, I connected with Tyler, our Head of Design, whose creativity brought life to our ideas. A developer joined us soon after, and we were off to the races.

By the end of 2023, Samir had to step away due to other commitments, and we promoted the developer to CTO. At the same time, I brought on Banko, a Sony music executive, as our CMO. Banko’s connections led to one of our biggest early wins: landing Davido, a global superstar, as an owner-ambassador. To this day, I still marvel at the fact that Davido believed in our vision when all we had were Tyler’s Figma designs.

From Dream to Reality
Early 2024 was a whirlwind. We hired Yurii and Vasyl, two developers from Ukraine who brought incredible skill and dedication to the team. Vasyl, in particular, stood out as a leader and has since earned an equity position in the company.

But despite these wins, we were facing growing pains. Our new CTO struggled to meet deadlines, and as a result, I found myself constantly pushing back the launch date. What started as a January release turned into February, then March, then April, then May. By then, people on Twitter Spaces—where I had been hyping up the platform—started doubting if we even had a product.

Launch and Lessons
June 1, 2024, marked a turning point. It was the day my son Noah was born and the day we launched Chatter in private beta. We started with just 40 users, but by the end of the month, we had grown to 1,000. The engagement was unbelievable. Users loved it, even though we had launched with just one feature: live rooms. This represented less than 20% of what we had planned, but it was enough to show that we were onto something big.

In July, we launched our public beta on the App Store as an invite-only platform. Within 48 hours, Chatter ranked as a top 30 social app in over 30 countries. But our invite system throttled access, and most users couldn’t get in. While engagement metrics soared for those inside, our AWS costs exploded. In August, our AWS bill hit $10,000. By September, it had climbed to $15,000, and we were drowning in bugs and glitches.

The breaking point came when our CTO became unresponsive, often disappearing during critical moments. Users were dropping off, frustrated by the issues, developers were confused and the team was also growing increasingly frustrated, I made the tough decision to let him go.

A New Beginning
Enter Horane, a long-time user of Chatter who had been with us since private beta. He was the first to discover some of the most innovative use cases for the platform and had a deep passion for its potential. After meeting him in person at a Chatter event, I knew he was the right person to step into the CTO role.

When Horane took over, we discovered just how bad the situation was. Key areas of the codebase were locked, and there were no separate environments for development and production. Every fix seemed to break something else. But through sheer determination and countless 18-hour days, Horane stabilized the platform.

Today, Chatter is far from perfect, but it’s stable. The bugs that plagued us have been reduced to moderate issues, and our core users—those who stuck with us through the chaos—are still engaged on the platform.

Looking Ahead: Chatter V2
While the platform is stable now, we’ve shifted our focus to Chatter V2. This is where the magic really begins. V2 isn’t just an improvement; it’s a complete reimagining of the platform. It includes all the features we couldn’t release in V1 because we were too busy putting out fires.

Imagine this: Chatter V1, with only one live feature, was incredibly sticky. Now think about what happens when we release a fully loaded platform with all the innovative features we’ve been working on behind the scenes. The possibilities are endless.

V2 is slated to hit TestFlight by the end of December, with a public release in January 2025. And this time, we’re ready—not just with the product but with the lessons we’ve learned.

The Hard Lessons
This journey has taught me more than I ever thought possible:

1) Your Team is Everything: The right people can make or break your vision. Finding people who believe in your mission is just as important as finding people with the right skills.
2) Adaptability is Key: As a non-technical founder, I had to learn about development, DevOps, and product management on the fly. Challenges will push you to grow, whether you’re ready or not.
3) Trust the Process: Every setback, every delay, every bug—it all taught us something. Without those lessons, we wouldn’t be building the incredible V2 product we are today.
4) Resilience is Non-Negotiable: From technical disasters to predatory investors who tried to exploit my desperation, I’ve had to fight for this vision every step of the way.

What’s Next
December is shaping up to be an exciting month. We have some amazing events planned on the platform to close out the year, bringing our core community together as we prepare for the V2 launch.

When V2 drops, it will mark a new era for Chatter. This isn’t just a social audio platform or a social audiovisual platform. Chatter is all about interactive experiences—making social media social again in ways that are truly unique.

The public launch is slated for February 2025, and for the first time, we’ll have the marketing dollars to tell the world about Chatter. Our core community has been our biggest cheerleaders, and I can’t wait to see how the world reacts when they experience what we’ve built.

Final Thoughts
This has been the hardest year of my life, but also the most rewarding. To other founders, or anyone thinking about starting a company: know this—it will test you in ways you can’t imagine. You’ll face betrayal, doubt, and moments where you feel like giving up. But if you believe in your vision and refuse to quit, you’ll find a way forward.

Thank you to everyone who has supported me, my team, and Chatter. We’re just getting started.

Let’s talk about it. 🚀

If this story inspired you, please like and share it so others can learn from my experiences. The journey is far from over, but I’m more excited than ever for what’s to come.

[Russ Reiss @RussReiss]

@musk_news13 40

[Russ Reiss @RussReiss]

@bennyjohnson WTF! He's one evil dude that just needs to go away.

[Russ Reiss @RussReiss]

@POTUS Gonna lie right up to the end!

[Right Scope 🇺🇸 @RightScopee]

🚨BREAKING: Elon Musk is programing an unbiased search engine and email service that will rival Google.

WOULD YOU DUMP GOOGLE OVER THIS?

A. Yes
B. No

[Russ Reiss @RussReiss]

No value except to the organizations taking money without justification. Long overdue. Maybe other boards will follow. Don't hold your breath! https://t.co/VDOJMdaw3L

[Russ Reiss @RussReiss]

https://t.co/s9LWdDlj2W

[Russ Reiss @RussReiss]

If your guide can’t save you, he ain’t a guide!!

https://t.co/k2JY7ccDQU

[Marion E Mass, M.D. #patientsfirst #scrubsnotsuits @mass_marion]

.@SenBobCasey are you calling for the law to be broken and going against the PA Supreme Court?
Every time an illegal ballot is counted, you are erasing a legitimate vote.

Below is an article I wrote with the vice president of @Amaccapitolhill

It describes why a physician like me and why many citizens chose @DaveMcCormickPA

https://t.co/aWzxcjfyqs

[Marion E Mass, M.D. #patientsfirst #scrubsnotsuits @mass_marion]

https://t.co/uQ0qTmUD3M

[Russ Reiss @RussReiss]

@amuse This is sick, very sick.

[@amuse @amuse]

RACISM: The Democrats REALLY need to start admitting they were lying about Trump and his supporters before their constituents start following through with their threats. This woman is threatening to kill white men with a Glock (white liberal women only know about Glocks).

[Russ Reiss @RussReiss]

@mass_marion @dbongino @mikepompeo @Free2CareHC @TruthRX @PharmacyPodcast @alexosh @matthewstoller Supporting PBMs would go directly against RFK plan for MAHA @mikepompeo Hopefully, everyone works together but stays in their lane.

[Kostas Moros @MorosKostas]

@NuanceBro This one goes hard lol.

Tiktok all week has been Dems crying and Trump edits

[MAGA Resource @MAGAResource]

Donald Trump has only been elected for 2 days and RFK Jr is already working on making America healthy again.

God bless him.

[Jessica Rojas 🇺🇸💪 @VoicesUnheard]

Exactly!! Nobody cared until you went after the children, the locker rooms, sports and classrooms.

[Russ Reiss @RussReiss]

@DonaldTNews @Polymarket Yes