Mere hours after being laid off from Twitter during Elon Musk’s takeover, its former global head of social & editorial, Alphonzo Terrell launched a competitor app, SPILL. Now, less than two years later, he’s poised to fill a void another popular platform may leave if it gets banned in the US.
SPILL’s spiel is simple: a digital space for connection that is positive, safe and inclusive. A reference the AAVE phrase “spill the tea,” the platform encourages users to use it as a way to share information with one another in an authentic way.
This begs the question: what role will the app play for Black users if TikTok goes away?
“I’ll do you one better, I believe we’re building the greatest social platform in the world, bar none,” Terrell tells ESSENCE. “It’s going to put everything in the dust because, again, we’re starting with a core experience that just isn’t possible, unfortunately, anywhere else. We understand who actually drives the culture. It’s not like, oh, we just built this tech, and then let’s figure out where all the cool kids are. We know. Ironically, it takes other folks a while to figure it out, but we know because we come from this. It’s us. We know those two things. Then number three, we know it’s about fun and connection and community.”
According to their team SPILL has novel solutions for social media that the culture needs, and “it’s been a beautiful and terrifying experience” making that happen. To date, the app has enjoyed more 500k downloads.
“The idea behind SPILL was really motivated from some very personal experiences working at major platforms before,” Terrell tells ESSENCE. “My entire career has really been about delivering solutions for how can we move culture to place that’s more inclusive, more dynamic, richer, so that it can enhance people’s lives.
SPILL is definitely gained attention. It was named Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies of 2024 and hosted exclusive Q&As with Kerry Washington among some other notable moments. But more than anything, the user experience is still functioning as Terrell intended.
“The app we built feels very connected,” he explains. “Not to get too woo-woo, but the ancestors are with us on this. There are a lot of magical things happening that I could not say we had planned. But I’m really grateful.”