As others have pointed out, the 'young single' scene is primarily about dating, whether it's obviously so or not.
The social group that really has a difficult time is the couple with youngish kids who just moved out of their 'starter' dwelling and into a neighborhood with good schools, etc. It is surprisingly difficult to break into new social groups at that age. The options are church groups and jock groups (for parents whose kids are into and fairly good at multiple sports). If that's not your thing, it can get pretty lonely.
In your first neighborhood, everybody is a new parent and it's pretty easy to get together and hang out with neighbors (even over a few drinks) while the kids play with each other. You have parties and the kids are all there playing with each other also. Everybody is kind of at the same place in life and making more-or-less the same money. Those who went to college/grad school still haven't quite caught up with the folks who started their careers earlier, so there is quite a diverse population available to become friends.
At the next stage, however, it's tougher. You are moving your elementary school-age children into neighborhoods where the other parents might have high-school age children. Perhaps you changed cities (or states). It's pretty tough to break in because your life has become more kid-focused, and there is less time for other adults.
An app like this might be well received in that market.
I know many socially adept people who have trouble making friends in their 30s. People in their 30s often are married or in a serious relationship, and spend most of their free time with their significant other. Or, people in their 30s often have kids and have little time to socialize. Also, people at this age may have an established social circle and may put in less effort to build new friendships.
Sure, you can still make friends, but it's definitely a much smaller pool than in your teens and twenties.
I don't know, being in that demo, seems like the main issue is that I don't meet many people through normal activities. And some of the hobby-like activities where I go to meetups are things aren't really filed with people I'd like to be friends with as a "couple" with my wife.
Probably widely varies by profession / lifestyle though.
Shared child care. As in, a when a handful of parents and kids are hanging out, it's way easier than just one family. So just make a big red button that says "my kids are driving my crazy can you bring your kids over to tire them out?" and the app does some kind of recommendation / reputation to make sure I'm introduced to the right folks.
I fit this scenario perfectly. I moved out of state, bought a house in a small neighborhood and my wife and I just had our first child a few months ago.
We know no one and we aren't going to start knocking on doors to introduce ourselves. We're not nearly that outgoing. However, it would be nice to meet people and hang out here and there. We're in our late 20's so it's hard to find people around our age in a similar situation. We can't really go to bars to meet up or go to concerts or pretty much any thing we used to do a year ago.
An app that could get people to meet up in these situations could be useful, but would I use it? Eh. I don't know.
While we fall in to your "couple with youngish kids" demographic, we don't do the western property ladder career path thing and actually choose not to live in the west at all. I read your post and was like "Hah, 1950s automobile suburban [dys|u]topia strikes again!" By way of example, we just spent 3 months travelling around Europe, in some cases visiting people we'd met randomly in restaurants here in Asia (and their llamas). Never assume the world operates similarly to your own turf.
I am pumped for you launching an app and completing something probably feels great. I think it is a bit derivative of grouper and tinder, and social networks have the chicken and the egg problem, but seriously, nice!
You might want to launch or promote it in a specific area to try and gain critical mass, as having 1 million users wouldn't be helpful if they were distributed across the country. Try and win a college, neighborhood or city and then let it spread organically. Good luck!
Thanks vonklaus- you're completely right- it is very similar to tinder and grouper- however FriendsTonight has a few main differences
1. We're about meeting new people in groups, not dating- I actively tried to reduce the "dating app" feel as much as possible.
2. When you make a request to hang out with someone- it only lasts until the end of the night (4am). If the other group doesn't respond by then, they lose the chance to meet you.
3. All likes, matches and chats disappear at the end of the night.
I'm trying to focus all my initial marketing in NYC. From what I've learned, my target market is young professionals or people that just graduated college.
Would love to chat with you more about marketing. Feel free to email me at sam@friendstonightapp.com
A very significant intrinsic motivator to go out and socialise for most single people (a large percentage of young professionals and people who just graduated college) is the possibility of meeting someone.
It's a great concept, but embracing the dating aspect rather than fighting the tide on it might work out better.
I don't know about that. I am not looking to date anyone, but would love to make more friends in the area. Don't forget: not everyone is young and single.
Totally agree, and even for people actively looking to date it's only one of many motivations to go out and meet new people, but it is definitely a significant one.
And since the target demographic is young professionals and recent college graduates - indeed a very large proportion of that market is young and single :-)
I gotta agree - honestly I think you're wise to avoid the expectation that it will be used for dating, but the most compelling use case for this has got to be being out with a group of single friends and wanting to meet another group of single friends of the opposite sex.
Is it? I have go-to friends that I hang out with pretty regularly, sometimes we end up playing pool or sharing a table with some other folks that do or don't want to chat, it makes our time a lot more interesting, but organically it doesn't always work out well because sometimes the people you got shoved next to are on a date when you're catching a game with your buddies.
Me too, I just can't see myself ever bothering with an app to facilitate it. The other problem is that it's hard enough getting a group to agree on what restaurant to go to, getting an entire group to agree to go somewhere to meet another random group from an app sounds pretty difficult unless there's a greater shared goal like dating.
I once tried starting something like this. What I found is that people have very little motivation to meet strangers for the purpose of friendship. Another company built a very similar product, but focussed on dating, and they did much better, while my product failed. Not to say that you didn't figure out how to do this, but I think there's wishful thinking among some founders (like me) that people want to make new friends and will use an app to do so.
When I think about it, it feels like there is some sort of mental barrier that I have to overcome to make plans with strangers. Maybe when the meetups would be less personal like 20 random people going to a bar or club, I'd rather join in on something. Then nobody would realize if I leave, but if I bond with some people its fine.
When you meet a stranger, the actual purpose of small talk is to try to find some common ground. Some people are better at it than others (I am horrible)... but if some common ground can be established, both people will have an easier time making conversation. That's why so many meetups are centered around an activity/topic. I would much rather attend a group of "20 random people that list kayaking as a sport they enjoy" than "20 random people".
That's a good point, completely random would be too much, at least the age should be somewhat similar and maybe the place to meet is also a context, e.g. a bar already indicates a form of interest, different than meeting in the water park.
You can use FriendsTonight as a single person, but really would prefer you to use it as a group (it's more safe and less awkward).
Have you ever been out with a few of your friends and tried to meet new people (either romantically or non-romantically)- wouldn't it be cool if you knew people nearby wanted to meet you as well?
> Have you ever been out with a few of your friends and tried to meet new people (either romantically or non-romantically)- wouldn't it be cool if you knew people nearby wanted to meet you as well?
No, I have not. When I go out with my friends, I usually want to hang out with my friends.
Sometimes, however, all my friends are busy but I'd be up for meeting some new ones.
I'm sure the HN community can help you with this issue. There are a few platforms like PhoneGap that allow you to develop mobile apps on multiple devices using one codebase.
Interesting concept, and congratulations on shipping! I think you should rework the copy ("you group = liked"?!), but I'm interested in seeing whether this gets traction.
I'm based in Japan, where people usually like to meet in groups, even for romantic relationships (look for gōkon[1]), so if you don't have the growth you're looking for in the US, try on the other side of the Pacific. Ping me if you have a question.
You definitely hit it nail on the head about meeting up in groups- it's a lot less awkward and safer.
FriendsTonight is less about dating and more about meeting new people- I envision it as more like meeting new people at a houseparty- there's no expectation of a people being single.
Growth has been tough- it's definitely a chicken/egg problem. Would love to hear more of your feedback, I'll definitely ping you.
I think is embarrassing meet an unknown man/woman and start a conversation based on the fact that they have to meet each other because they matched with a social app. The problem is not "How to meet people". I think socialization is a more complex process that is very difficult to engineering.
Great article leoplct- I definitely read this article and it influenced the way I designed my app.
FriendsTonight can't force you to meet new people, but we try to make it as less awkward as possible by making it "groups meeting groups" not "person meeting person".
It totally is a very complex process to meet a person, but I'm trying to make my dent in the world : )
Essentially Grouper, but you choose the groups and it happens immediately. I think the model where you take something and make it happen a lot faster is compelling and this seems like it has potential for the 20 somethings in the big cities. Good luck.
Thanks jmtame. FriendsTonight is similar with some key differences
- you don't need to be single
- mixed groups and odd numbered groups are okay (2 women vs 5 men and women)
- it's free
- all chats and likes disappear at the end of the night to get people to be spontaneous
Should I get an iPhone? In my country the Android has 90% market share but... richer or artistic people mostly have iPhones. They probably spend more on apps and services as well.
So, to make money, should I get an iPhone and build apps for iOS? (Of course, I'm rooting for Android to reach the same quality in the long run)
Studies have shown you make a lot more from IOS apps than Android. There is a culture of "we already have it, and it's free" with Android that makes monetization tough.
Often people have more than one social circle. Sometimes I've met some new people because one of my friends has decided to get some people from two of their social circles together, and I'm in only one of them. Maybe you could work this into your app - I've rarely hung out with people I have no social connection to.
Makes sense. I also enjoy meeting new people. But to me, and of course this is just my opinion, it seems like the challenge of meeting new people in the real world is exactly why it's so rewarding. It takes a personal investment that is so much more significant than a swipe on a smart phone.
In my experience, Tinder was a huge improvement over things like OkCupid, Plenty of Fish, etc, but Tinder has a super clunky app and is still geared mostly toward hookups. There is always room for improvement!
Lower barrier to entry, all you need to get started are some photos. Creates a higher user population, so the % of creeps is lower (from conversation, this seems to be what turns my female friends off traditional dating apps)
And lastly, there's no real negative social stigma attached to it, partially because it's so popular. With traditional dating sites, people think you're a loser if you have a profile.
Heh, seriously. I know tons of couples who met on "traditional dating sites"; whereas if I found out someone I knew used tinder I would consider them pretty skeevy and would (metaphorically) inch away slowly.
The social group that really has a difficult time is the couple with youngish kids who just moved out of their 'starter' dwelling and into a neighborhood with good schools, etc. It is surprisingly difficult to break into new social groups at that age. The options are church groups and jock groups (for parents whose kids are into and fairly good at multiple sports). If that's not your thing, it can get pretty lonely.
In your first neighborhood, everybody is a new parent and it's pretty easy to get together and hang out with neighbors (even over a few drinks) while the kids play with each other. You have parties and the kids are all there playing with each other also. Everybody is kind of at the same place in life and making more-or-less the same money. Those who went to college/grad school still haven't quite caught up with the folks who started their careers earlier, so there is quite a diverse population available to become friends.
At the next stage, however, it's tougher. You are moving your elementary school-age children into neighborhoods where the other parents might have high-school age children. Perhaps you changed cities (or states). It's pretty tough to break in because your life has become more kid-focused, and there is less time for other adults.
An app like this might be well received in that market.