App.net reaches $500,000 funding goal

Dalton Caldwell’s vision for an adless, Twitter-like social network has reached its initial funding goal of $500,000 with just a day to spare. It took a total of 7,372 backers to reach the goal, which was in question just a few days ago when the company had barely crossed the $300,000 level.

Now, with the project officially backed, Caldwell and his team aim to build a social network that won’t rely on advertising to stay afloat.

We believe that advertising-supported social services are so consistently and inextricably at odds with the interests of users and developers that something must be done.

If you’re interested in joining or would like to learn more about the social network, you can visit join.app.net. You can also check out the alpha version here.