Spill, the Black-owned Twitter alternative, scores investment from Kerry Washington

This time last year, Alphonzo Terrell uncorked a fancy bottle of Champagne to toast the one-year anniversary of his layoff from Twitter. He had a lot to celebrate at the time: His social media platform, Spill, had just raised a $2 million seed extension and had grown to around 200,000 users. Now, as the second anniversary of Spill rolls around, the former global head of editorial at Twitter has something else to celebrate: Emmy-winning actress Kerry Washington has made an investment in his app.

Washington isn’t just a member of the cap table, though. She’s been active within the Spill community, hosting Tea Parties — Spill’s name for live video conversations — and having one-on-one conversations with users about registering to vote.

“She’s incredibly accessible and knowledgeable, especially around these topics and is not scared in any way, shape, or form about really engaging with people directly,” Terrell told TechCrunch. “I think it really does represent the kind of environment we want to cultivate on Spill … We’re all human here, too. Let’s connect.”

Though Washington is best known for her roles on TV shows like “Scandal” and “Little Fires Everywhere,” the actress has made a number of early-stage investments. She’s been an angel investor for the direct-to-consumer teeth-alignment startup Byte; the now-defunct women’s co-working space The Wing; celebrity-centric fundraising company Omaze; and Community, an SMS-based marketing tool.

“In a digital world where marginalized groups, especially Black, Brown, and LGBTQIA folks, rarely feel prioritized, Spill stands out,” Washington said in a statement. “I’m proud to be part of this community as both a user and an investor.”

In a surprising turn, one of Spill’s biggest successes this year has been its launch of a live, multiplayer Spades game. Spades has inadvertently become a boon for Spill’s user retention statistics, with one game of Spades lasting about 30 minutes on average.

“It’s partner based, so it’s inherently very social,” Terrell said. “This was a suggestion from the community, because it’s always played at Black barbecues and things like that, and family gatherings.”

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While difficult to keep a new social media platform afloat financially, Spill has made strides in its advertising business. As a former digital marketing director at HBO and Showtime, Terrell has experience in the entertainment industry, which has helped Spill close advertising deals with brands like Paramount+.

“Multicultural ad spending has increased 5-10% [per year] over the last seven years. It’s going to be a $45 billion a year business in just the United States this year,” Terrell said. “We had some entertainment partners that were running some test campaigns, and since that time, we’ve had … a lot of brands coming back for multiple campaigns.”

Overall, the average ad spend per campaign for Spill has increased by 400%. Next year, Spill is on track to cross a million dollars in annualized revenue.

“We’re hyperfocused on an area where there’s just not anything else really like us,” Terrell said. “As long as we continue to execute and continue to steadily build all the different products, innovations, and everything that we’re talking about, we’re going to be in fantastic shape.”

The Spill team is proud of its progress as it finishes up its second year, but the day that TechCrunch caught up with Terrell was a somber one. The previous night, users on Spill mourned the death of Marcellus Williams, a Black man who spent over 20 years on death row for a murder that he said he didn’t commit and for which there was no DNA or forensic evidence found against him. Though three U.S. Supreme Court justices opposed the execution, they were overruled. The NAACP described the execution as a lynching.

For Terrell, this moment emphasized the value that Spill serves; as a Black-owned social media app with an active goal of creating safer spaces for marginalized people, users felt comfortable to express their nuanced feelings about the execution and the American criminal justice system.

“The execution yesterday … really underscored the need for just like, community, like people around you to support you so that you’re not isolated,” he said. “You don’t carry this stuff alone. I think everybody needs that wherever you can find it.”