Awkward conversations and boring meetings can ruin an entire day and delay the most important tasks at hand. Comedienne and actress Chelsea Handler knows that and in a new app she helped develop, people can get away from such situations without bringing up lame excuses.
Officially dubbed "Chelsea Handler: Gotta Go," this new mobile app lets users schedule fake text messages and phone calls. With this, people may get away from a really bad date or an excruciating meeting with a friend-turned-insurance-agent.
Examples of real text messages users can receive include "Come quick, your apartment burned down" or "Help, grandma got arrested again."
To make the "emergency" more convincing, users may also receive pre-recorded messages from Handler containing instructions on how to act out the emergency and make your "Oh my! I really gotta go! I am so sorry," sound authentic.
Handler worked with development company Yeti in 2015 to build the app. She happens to be friends with the firm's founders and decided to work on a project, and Gotta Go was born.
"We wanted to build something that she could relate to, so we needed to find a problem that was a very Chelsea Handler problem," says Yeti president Tony Scherba.
Scherba says Handler contributed a lot to the app's concept, design and content.
Aside from being hands-on with the development of her app, Handler was said to also take part in the investment plan of the project. She went to Silicon Valley to present her ideas so she could score investors. Accompanied by Yeti's founders, Handler met with San Francisco-based venture capital company Foundation Capital, which is said to have invested in Netflix, Lending Club and Sunrun.
Handler lets people in on the entire process of app development via her new Netflix documentary series "Chelsea Does." The second episode of her show features Gotta Go's creation, alongside Handler's exploration of marriage, race, tech and drugs.
Although the investor meeting was part of the show, Handler took it seriously and underwent the usual process of business presentation to clients.
Gotta Go may be downloaded for free at the iOS App Store.
Photo: NextCONF | Flickr
