Master Distributor Michael Rutherford confirmed Rippln's failure in an email circulated across the company's Facebook page in December. The message ended months of silence and speculation for thousands of affiliates who had bought into the app's promise of viral growth and commissions.
Rippln had gone completely quiet in December. This shift was jarring for an operation that spent months aggressively marketing itself. The quiet was particularly noticeable for affiliates expecting an app that never fully materialized.
The company's offerings were always vague. Its business model lacked clarity. Commissions were minimal, and most of the world could not even participate. These issues did not matter when Rippln's marketing machine operated at full capacity.
When questions arose about Rippln's disappearance, CEO Brian Underwood pushed back. He told MLM Helpdesk's Troy Dooly the silence was overblown. Underwood stated the company was still running, holding two calls each week. He complained that critics accused him of hype when he made noise, and of running a scam when he did not. "I can't win for losing," Underwood claimed.
That defensive stance crumbled days later. Rutherford's email finally told the truth Underwood had avoided for months: the company was finished.
Rutherford acknowledged Rippln's early success. It had broken records and generated genuine viral buzz, a level of excitement unprecedented in the industry. But behind the scenes, problems mounted.
The issue was not the marketing hype. Rippln tried to build a technology platform on a very tight budget. The company needed $3 to $5 million in venture capital from the start, along with resources it never secured. Instead, it faced constant scrambling and endless adjustments.
Technology startups require constant iteration. Success means refining the product, finding flaws, and making changes. Rippln found many flaws. But fixing them demanded money and manpower the company did not have.
Financing dried up. The business model proved unworkable. The venture was over.
Thousands of people had signed up as affiliates. They promoted Rippln to their networks, believing in the app's potential to generate income. They first received silence, then a quiet admission of failure buried in an email.
No press release followed. Underwood offered no explanation. Only Rutherford's message told everyone they had come "incredibly far" with limited resources.