HBO’s ‘Silicon Valley’ Really Built a ‘Bro app’ Imitating the Yo App

On Sunday’s episode of “Silicon Valley, ” the Pied Piper nerds are meeting with venture capitalists after a lawsuit from their main competitor, Hooli, caused the VC company they signed with to back out on investing in them.

There’s a funny subplot during the episode, in which Pied Piper member Dinesh (Kumail Nanjiani) tries desperately to sabotage his cousin’s Kickstarter campaign for his app called “Bro.”

Bro is a messaging app that lets you send the word “Bro” to everyone else who has the app. Of course, it’s a ripoff of Or Arbel‘s Yo app…

“Silicon Valley” creator Mike Judge told Business Insider that season 2 was being written when Yo hit the market and they thought it was comedy gold. “It’s silly because it’s a nothing app, ” he said. So they decided to actually make one themselves, hence the Bro app.

“We worked with a bunch of iOS developers and there were some interfaces [of Bro] that were developed for the day we shot, ” said “Silicon Valley” co-producer and lead technical consultant, Jonathan Dotan. “So some of the actors had the prototype [in the scene].”

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