B2C · app for spontaneous phone calls

How Wrangle grows

1 tactic from 1 interview.

About Wrangle

What it is: See which friends are free for a call and ring them with one tap; built on Twilio
Launched: late 2011 / early 2012 (prototype)
Outcome: Pivoted into Burner

As described in the interviews, not independently verified.

Wrangle's tactic

Burner · B2C · second phone number app

Test a throwaway phone number by posting it in real Craigslist ads

Flood of calls and 10-100x the response of the old app; confirmed a real problem

While Wrangle (a network-dependent social calling app) struggled, the team spun its temporary-number 'Burner' feature into a standalone prototype. To test it they posted Craigslist ads (selling tickets, fake giveaways of flat-screen TVs) with a Burner number, measuring the inbound volume; they also showed it to friends and watched whether people said 'I want this' rather than 'my sister would like this'.

Workedvalidation

Sub Club by RevenueCat · 2025-12-10

Topics

Validating an app idea before building1

Interviews

Pivots, Funding, and Building Apps That Last – Greg Cohn, Burner · Sub Club by RevenueCat · 2025-12-10