Sebastian Dobrincu
@sebyddd · Co-Founder of Storyheap. 🔑
EDIT: Founders addressed the issue and proved that this is not the case.
Some very strange details around this project. In 2014, @andreineagucom, @perte and I started *Pengin* (https://twitter.com/PengInApp), which was a very similar concept, for social gatherings. We went through Orange's Innovation Accelerator program and won the Smart City category.
The similarities in the logo are truly suspicious:
We eventually decided to shut down. Not saying anything about copying, but seeing a product with the same name, purpose and almost identical logo, doesn't just happen. Could be the biggest coincidence I'll ever encounter. Still, wish you all the best guys!
We eventually decided to shut down. Not saying anything about copying, but seeing a product with the same name, purpose and almost identical logo, doesn't just happen. Could be the biggest coincidence I'll ever encounter. Still, wish you all the best guys! 10sharetweet・
Raul Perțe
@perte · Designer · Makes iOS apps · Client's BFF
@sebyddd @andreineagucom
Strange indeed.
To back Sebastian's comment, here's an actual design from the app, in 2015.
https://dribbble.com/shots/19225...
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Raul Perțe
@perte · Designer · Makes iOS apps · Client's BFF
@sebyddd @andreineagucom
To continue the idea, I think they could have reached out to us and see if we're willing to let go of the idea and they could have gotten with the brand and everything we worked on. Call it Panda, Bear of whatever - launch as something that's not similar to ours and pivot to the copycat edition when the market asks for it.
Don't know, but blatant copying is just stupid. All of us are getting our inspiration from some other product we love — but copying the brand with all its assets and the idea seems incredibly amateurish to me.
I can only wish them good luck bringing this idea to market.
P.S. The power of reaching out is amazing.
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Bryan
@bryan_o85 · Co-founder, Pinguin
@sebyddd While the logo is very similar and equally adorable, I can assure you that this is a huge coincidence. Our original concept was something completely different and played in the space of location based photo sharing. (Admittedly that doesn’t work) After holding 5 or 6 names in the span of a week, we started doing research on animals that behave in a similar way to our app. We landed on Penguins because they left something memorable in a location and would always return to that location. We swapped an “e” for an “i” to imply location with “Pin.” We don’t think it’s inconceivable that someone else had created a “Pin” or map icon shaped penguin before but we can assure you that this is the first we’re seeing it. The last thing we want is anything but support from the tech community and we’d be more than happy to connect and show you everything from our napkin sketches to what got us here now. We also hold the trademark in the US for both the name and logo.
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Bryan
@bryan_o85 · Co-founder, Pinguin
All of this aside, we would love to connect with your team to learn more about your product and any advice you may have for us moving forward. It’s always helpful to talk with other founders that have done this before.
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