It's the 28th of April 2014, the day Blendle was born. Marten and Alexander expected a few friends and partners to show up in an old warehouse in Amsterdam for their 'launch' party. 30 minutes before the start, the room filled with cameras and reporters. More then enough people were interested to see and hear what they came up with. Even PowNews sent a reporter:
A little rewind: in 2011, Marten found himself in a bookstore, a bit frustrated, looking at a magazine (as reenacted beautifully in this picture below). He was frustrated that he had to buy the whole magazine, whereas he only wanted to read one article from it. The first idea for Blendle was born and was called MyMagazine. He started talking to a lot of people in the media world, including Alexander. Alexander wasn't convinced yet.
In mid-2012, Marten asked Jort to make the first sketches and wireframes.
June 2012, these are the first sketches of Blendle:
Alexander and Marten stay in touch and, after seeing the first sketches, Alexander sees the potential and decides to join. Together they have an 'office' in the staircase of the science centre Nemo in Amsterdam. With the prototypes and Alexander on board, the conversations with the publishers actually start to get interesting. Alexander and Marten take all the feedback and criticism from the publishers back to their 'office' and keep improving the product.
In September 2013, Blendle received ****100,000 euros from a fund for innovation in journalism.
5 September 2013: First announcement of Blendle in the Dutch TV show DWDD: