[vonklaus]

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!

[friendstonight]

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 [e-mail]

[loceng]

Everything is dating.

[davnicwil]

Spot on.

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.

[IgorPartola]

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.

[davnicwil]

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 :-)

[elif]

How does this hinder you from dating?

because you have to explain to the person you've met that you want to date them, rather than it being implicit?

isn't that just... the way it's always been pre-hookup-apps?

[Untit1ed]

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.

[justizin]

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.

I could totally see trying this out.

[Untit1ed]

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.

[Blackthorn]

I don't know. I'm married but I'm also pretty lonely having just moved to a new area. I'd love nothing more than to just find some new friends.