The former head of Twitter’s @twitter social media handle Alphonzo Terrell is pouring his skills into a new app called Spill, which he is building with a team of ex-Twitter workers, some of whom were part of the exodus at the company after Elon Musk took over.
Spill will be a potential rival to Twitter, and the name of the startup evokes the popular phrase, “spilling tea,” which is internet speak for spouting one’s truth—or dropping a little bit of gossip. Terrell, the co-founder of Spill, goes by “Phonz” and his personal Twitter handle is @phonz, where the profile picture is from the famous Lipton tea commercial with Kermit the Frog sipping tea. The Kermit image has become the epitome of the “spilling tea” meme. Now, Terrell is CEO and co-founder at Spill, which he plans to launch by the end of January, with co-founder DeVaris Brown, who was a product head at Twitter and left in 2020, well before Musk gutted the staff in November.
Terrell had been the global director of Twitter’s social and editorial team, which had a staff of 27 people before Musk fired the department in November. The team had managed all of Twitter’s official accounts.
Ad Age caught up with Terrell this week to talk about his new venture, and how Spill is partly meant to draw any disaffected Twitter communities like Black Twitter and LGBTQ+ voices, among other culturally relevant groups, who might not be on board with Musk’s changes. Spill will have some similarities to Twitter, focusing on mass communications, and it has some key differences. Terrell hopes it will reward creators from different communities giving them a greater stake, and credit, for their participation.
“We’re not trying to be the Twitter, quote unquote, alternative,” Terrell said. “What Spill really is, and what we hope to make it, is sort of the next-generation social platform for real-time conversation. There’s a lot more exciting technology now that a lot of these platforms didn’t get to utilize when they were built 10 to 15 years ago.
“We need to figure out ways to reward people, who make these platforms,” Terrell said.