[dhimes]

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.

[friendstonight]

Great point dhimes! Not everyone that uses the app necessarily has to be "on the prowl".

I definitely was thinking about people in their early 30's and how hard to meet new people at that age.

If you have any ideas how to target this market, I'd love to hear them. You can email me at [e-mail]

[joeyspn]

> I definitely was thinking about people in their early 30's and how hard to meet new people at that age.

Well, that definitely depends on your social abilities...

[freyr]

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.

[jegutman]

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.

[jchrisa]

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.

[dimxasnewfrozen]

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.

[mhurron]

Just stop having friends.

[dotBen]

or kids

[mhurron]

meh, your existing friends will have kids and stop having anything to do with you because suddenly you don't get them.

[contingencies]

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.