Secret, the anonymous gossip app that raised $35 million, is shutting down after a totally crazy year

Secret, the anonymous social network app, is shutting down for good after a crazy year and raising $35 million in funding. The company began handing out severance packages to its remaining employees yesterday.

David Byttow, the company's cofounder and CEO, confirmed the news on Twitter and in a blog post he wrote on Medium.

"After a lot of thought and consultation with our board, I've decided to shut down Secret," Byttow wrote. "This has been the hardest decision of my life and one that saddens me deeply. Unfortunately, Secret does not represent the vision I had when starting the company, so I believe it's the right decision for myself, our investors and our team."Byttow's tweet that he will "wind-down" the company in the near future suggests that the entire Secret company is being shut down in addition to the app itself."While a majority of the team has already moved on to other exciting opportunities, I will dedicate most of my time to helping the core team find their next roles," Byttow wrote. "We curated one of the most amazingly talented teams I've ever had the privilege of working with and I am certain each of them will go on to do great work at the very lucky companies that are able to hire them."News of Secret's impending shutdown was first reported by BuzzFeed's Brendan Klinkenberg, and Business Insider also received a tip early Wednesday.

Secret originally launched to a lot of fanfare in San Francisco in early 2014. Within a few months, the company had raised $35 million. The two founders were allowed to pocket $3 million each while they continued to build the company. The company's second cofounder, Chrys Bader-Wechseler, left the company in January.

It's still not clear if Secret's founders will return that $3 million to investors, but Byttow wrote that Secret will be returning the funding it's raised so far.

"Secret, Inc. still has a significant amount of invested capital, but our investors funded the team and the product, and I believe the right thing to do is to return the money rather than attempt to pivot," Byttow wrote. "Innovation requires failure, and I believe in failing fast in order to go on and make only new and different mistakes."

The app, which started as a place for people to anonymously share secrets less than a year ago, recently relaunched in December as a minimalist social network that looked similar to one of its main competitors, Yik Yak.

Since relaunching, Secret has struggled in the App Store since, largely failing to break into the top 1500 overall apps or even the top 100 US social networking apps, according to rank download data from App Annie.

 

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