Spill
Co-founder, UX, UI
Role
Spring 2026
Duration
Tools
Figma, Python
Spill is a short-form audio social media app that allows users to share audio stories (up to 30 seconds) and audio posts (up to 90 seconds) with their friends and followers. Following in the foot steps of Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, and X, Spill invites people to share what’s on their mind with their community here and everywhere, without succumbing to the hegemony of the visual. Spill users can leverage our voice filters to change or even disguise their voice. Spill lets you like, share, repost, remix, talk back, save, and follow your favorite audio and its creators. Spill’s first-of-its-kind audio-forward platforms inspires listeners to connect with the time-honored tradition of oral storytelling without the immense production roadblocks presented by podcasting. As a startup, Spill is currently in Series A fundraising.
Context
Problem
We're drowning in screens — and it's rewiring our brains.
Social media trapped us in an endless scroll of hyper-curated visuals — filtered selfies, staged lunches, algorithmically optimized thumbnails — all engineered to hijack our dopamine systems and keep our eyes glued to glass. Average attention spans have collapsed. Screen time is climbing past seven hours a day. And every platform keeps doubling down on the same playbook: more video, more visuals, more reasons to never look away.
The people who actually have something to say? Locked out. Podcasting demands studio-grade production. Video demands you perform for the camera. The bar for entry keeps rising while the substance keeps falling.
Here's what's been lost in the noise: the oldest, most human form of connection isn't visual at all. It's the voice. A story told out loud. A thought shared the moment it strikes. No ring light, no editing suite, no aesthetic to maintain — just someone with something worth saying.
Social media doesn't have a content problem. It has a medium problem.
Team
Vivek Gopal Ramaswamy
Back End
Development, Design, Research
Dr. Emma Vendetta
Front End
UX, UI, Design, Research
Process
Spill has been designed in response to the human need for social connection and the co-founders shared belief in the simple power of a spoken story.
First, we began by sketching wireframes for key screens and describing the essential user interactions.
Spill is now on version 3 of development and will begin beta testing in Summer 2026.
Next, I drafted a prototype in Figma and handed it over to Vivek for development.
Product
Spill v.1 is pictured.
