I started in 2013 because I was hooked on Temple Run and figured the name was a sign. Twelve years later I'm still shipping, mostly apps that connect people. Founding iOS at Geneva (acquired by Bumble), plus a handful of things I build because I can't not.
The whole arc is below. It reads best in order, so start at the top.
A chronological list of things I've made. Click any era to open it.
2013-2017 · learning to ship
2013. Hooked on iPhone games: Temple Run, Flappy Bird. Saw the money, saw a skill I could learn. Started building little games in Objective-C.
2014. Senior year of high school. Swift gets announced. Switched immediately and never looked back.
2017. Shipped The College App, my first real thing. Yik Yak had just been pulled, so I built the version I wanted: an anonymous campus feed paired with events and polls, with the option to post as yourself. Took off at my school, then spread to a few other campuses. Eventually closed it to chase the next thing.
2018-2019 · first products, then a startup
2018. Built SlidePal, my own friending/dating app. Wanted to get away from swiping, so I leaned into sliding (hence the name). Launched it quietly. Never really pursued it; something more exciting showed up.
Jun 2019. Out of college, joined a Manhattan startup as founding engineer for Geneva. The pitch: a third place. Discord for gamers, Slack for work, Geneva for everything else.
2019-2024 · six years on Geneva
'19-'24. The entire lifecycle. Built the app from the ground up. Learned from teammates, debated, rebuilt, shipped. Full ownership, end to end. The kind of work that ruins you for other work.
2023. On the side, shipped FunRun.ai: write words on a map and go run them. Tossed a clip on TikTok, it went a little viral, and the downloads followed.
2024. Geneva acquired by Bumble. Diligence, compliance, the regulatory checklist. Months of paperwork.
2024. Shipped Book2Life, quietly the work I'm most invested in. An AI reading app: read your favorite books, or have them narrated in voices that don't feel synthetic. Live summaries as you read, character portraits, scenes from the current chapter, and explanations of anything that doesn't click. The reading experience I always wanted. I use it daily.
What's open on my desk this week.
- Runvas is FunRun relaunched, built for real this time. Shapes, drawing, words, full route art. FunRun was the prototype; Runvas is the product.
- Book2Life is still my daily driver, and I keep improving it.
- egod is a decentralized platform for spreading good. Use Dogecoin to publicly fund proposals that help the community. Still building.
- Bumble BFF is Geneva, integrated and relaunched under the Bumble umbrella. Millions of new hands.
- Banter is a Jackbox-style party game I made with two friends. Very fun, and free.
Languages Swift · Objective-C · TypeScript · Rust · Python
Frameworks React · Next · Firebase
Tools Xcode · Figma · Claude · ChatGPT
iOS is home, but I'll reach for whatever the idea needs. Lately that's been a lot of AI-coded apps and a Rust project I had no business starting (through-wall WiFi sensing, ask me about it).
Here to build something? Looking for a builder? Want to say hi?
- Web · ryantemple.com
- LinkedIn · in/ryan-temple
- Instagram · @rtemple
- Email · ryantempledeveloper@gmail.com
one more thing
My last name is Temple. The game that got me into all of this was Temple Run. I've decided that counts as foreshadowing.
Built with ♥ in Hoboken. DMs are open, bring an idea.