Most startup founders will do anything to attract new users. The founders at Blend are happily turning some away.
Akash Nigam, a University of Michigan dropout who left school with just one semester to go, is building a social network exclusive to college students. Everyone with a .edu email address is welcome. Unless, of course, you're a student at Ohio State University, Michigan's most hated rival.
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Blend encourages users to share pictures that match the app's theme of the day, themes like "Tailgate Saturday" or "Library Shenanigans." When users get Snaps from others on Blend — the app's equivalent to Facebook Likes — they can turn them in as social currency for free gift cards from brand advertisers.
Take cool photos. Get your friends to Snap them. Redeem those Snaps for gifts. It's a simple concept that has attracted more than 50,000 daily users across the country. None of them hail from Buckeye country, however.
The reason? Nigam and cofounder Matt Geiger, who also dropped out a semester early from the University of Pennsylvania, delete all Ohio State students who sign up.
"It's like, look, let's fix the problem for the people we care about, and we just don't care about Ohio State," says Nigam. "That's what it comes down to. We said, 'they probably shouldn't be included in a cool product that we're building.'"
Blend's founders claim they've deleted more than 2,000 accounts from Ohio State students since first launching their app last October. The tactic has gone over well with Michigan students who find the exclusivity appealing, if not necessary. The response from Ohio State students has been less supportive.
"[Ohio State] hasn't been too happy," says Nigam. "I think on our Facebook some guy was like super angry and sent us a few messages, but, I mean ... sucks to suck."
The founding team believes that excluding one university from an otherwise open "college only" app won't impact their ultimate goal of creating the next big social network. Investors don't seem to mind either. Blend closed its first funding round on Wednesday, a $2.7 million round led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA) that included a handful of other investors like Trinity Ventures and Foundation Capital.

Blend has more than 50,000 daily users who can redeem free gift cards in exchange for Snaps that they receive when posting pictures.
Image: Blend
One point of emphasis for the company appears to be its monetization strategy. Blend has allowed brands to advertise within the app from the beginning, a strategy that sets the expectation for users, says Nigam. In fact, users welcome the brand participation because it means more free goodies.
The photos from the app appear in a feed similar to the way users read tweets on Twitter or look at images on Instagram. Every sixth photo is a brand photo, and these brand photos offer users an opportunity to redeem prizes in exchange for the Snaps they've accumulated on their own pictures.
Once a user decides which brand he wants to spend his Snaps on, he will win a gift card spanning a number of different values. For example, paying 20 Snaps for an Uber reward might win you a $20 gift card, or a $100 gift card. The card's value is randomized within the app.
In all, Blend already partners with more than 200 brands, a nice accomplishment for a five-month old startup, although they don't currently have a revenue stream. Nigam and Geiger plan to add a number of new features in the coming months, including traditional social media features like push notifications, friend tagging, and anonymous comments. Two major features, a "custom camera" and a "one on one interaction" feature, are slated for the fall, and will mark the app's transition out of beta.
One thing you can bet the founders won't add — Ohio State students. When asked if they ever plan to open Blend to OSU students, Nigam didn't hesitate or elaborate. "No," he said.
Anything else we should know, fellas?
"Go Blue."
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