Nine Person Startup In Boston Teamed Up With Amazon To Create An App For The White House

Homescreen: Explore the Virtual White House — The free app allows people to explore the White House virtually from anywhere in the world.

Maggie Penman is a reporter for WGBH News. Prior to joining WGBH, she worked on NPR’s flagship show Morning Edition, reported on breaking news for the network, and helped launch the popular social science show Hidden Brain. Her reporting has taken her from the North Dakota Prairie to Berlin, Germany, to a tiny town in Japan called Obama. In 2017, she reported on the German elections as an Arthur F. Burns Fellow through the International Center for Journalists.

June 06, 2018

Updated July 03, 2023

Imagine you are the CEO and founder of a tech startup, with just nine employees. And then, you get a call from Amazon. They want you to help them build a product for a secret client, who turns out to be The White House.

That's what happened to Brendan Ciecko, founder and CEO of the Boston-based company Cuseum.

"It's kind of like a pinching yourself moment," he said. His startup builds apps for cultural institutions and museums, like the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston and SF MOMA. The apps are intended to engage visitors and allow people who can't visit to experience some of the art — sort of a modern answer to the classic audio tour.

Amazon approached Cuseum about the project, saying only that a "very significant unnamed organization" was looking to enrich the experience for its visitors.

"We were leaping for joy that one of the most important and influential technology companies in the world was interested in anything that we were doing," Ciecko said.

For the first few months, Cuseum had no idea who they were building the app for.

"So at that point, we created an instance for Amazon Museum of Art, not knowing what it would be, and added content for 'Jeff Bezos' collection,'" Ciecko said. "We were just kind of helping them fill it with audio and video and images and maps, all sorts of things to get a sense of the capabilities of the product."

Now, the cat's out of the bag. First Lady Melania Trump tweeted Tuesday, "I invite Americans across our great country to visit this wonderful, historic home with the White House Experience app from @WhiteHouseHstry. Distance is no longer an excuse not to visit the People’s House."

Closing the distance between people and cultural institutions is the whole idea of Cuseum, said Ciecko. Users of the app can "jump into the different portraits, and artifacts, and points of interest" throughout 1600 Pennsylvania. The app also offers resources for visitors who want a little more context, as well as walking tours of the surrounding neighborhoods.

And that means — whether you live in Miami, Florida, San Diego, California, or Bangor, Maine — you can visit the White House, any time.

This story has been updated.