USC Viterbi grad’s Snapchat-inspired app Confetti hits big time

Dylan Eirinberg ’16 was a senior at USC when he started playing with the idea of an app.

He was on Snapchat and thought the process of creating your own geofilter was kind of clunky.

Launched in February, the service allows users to create custom artwork that would show up in a given area ­— for example, a filter with balloons and a message that shows up around a birthday party location in Echo Park.

The consumer had to upload their own art — which meant they had to know how to use Photoshop or Illustrator — and Snapchat would OK or reject it.

“Over spring break I was home with my brother Ethan and we started discussing the idea,” said Eirinberg, who majored in computer science at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. “We both became really excited about how much demand there was among our friends. We had so many ideas about how to improve the process.”

That’s how he and his brother came up with Confetti, the app that launched three weeks ago — and is killing it on iTunes.

Within days of its launch, it was fifth in line under “New Apps We Love” on the iTunes store and in the top 100 apps.

The app has fonts, banners and art that can be personalized — like glasses clinking with a phrase for a wedding — and for $14.99, the app will turn it in to Snapchat and notify you once it’s approved. A trimmed-down version for $9.99 allows you to save the filter.

The response has been unbelievable ­— way better than we thought it would be.

Dylan Eirinberg

“The response has been unbelievable — way better than we thought it would be,” he said.

The week of the launch, the app was featured on Mashable, including in its Snapchat stories.

“We exploded that day,” he said.

This month Eirinberg starts a software designer job at Palo Alto-based design company Ideo and his brother starts as an undergraduate at Stanford University ­— so both were surprised to have this turn into a full-time pursuit. Because of their schedules, they’re looking into hiring people to work on the app, such as developers and designers. They want to add more art options.

Snapchat reacts

There’s also a hint that Snapchat is watching: The company recently launched on-demand geofilters — allowing anyone to customize filters, regardless of their designing capabilities. But right now, it’s only accessible through a website, not by app. It starts at $5.

Dylan Eirinberg is convinced their app will stay relevant.

“Our orders have surprisingly gone up after Snapchat’s recent custom On-Demand Geofilter announcement,” he said. “People want to create geofilters on their phones because they create all of their other Snapchat content on their phones.”