Hi everyone,
Looking for some thoughts on the idea below. I have been working on prototypes and testing and just wanted to utilize this awesome forum for some feedback before going into development.
What is the Idea?
BeMyBro (beta) - Check our facebook for daily updates!
Create the world’s largest same-sex friend matching and networking service based upon location, profession, interests and age. It will be targeted at male, early-20 somethings and up, with a main emphasis on people that have relocated for work, moved to a new city or are newly married with a major lifestyle shift.
I will build upon Facebook's platform to uncover and list mutual friends you have in your city that you normally would not have visibility into. To keep users coming to the site (and also include guys that already have established networks), a big emphasis of the site will be based on user-created events. Think pickup basketball games, watching the big game at the bar, a hiking trip, etc.
It is often thought that making same-sex friends is actually more difficult than meeting a significant other, so I am looking to make a taboo idea (dudes searching for dudes online) more mainstream in hopes of improving the adult population’s social lives, general well-being and happiness.
Why is it a Business?
I feel there is a tremendous need for this service which will result in a large user base which in return will mean a strong ad-supported business model allowing very targeted ads based on profile data.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/fashion/the-challenge-of-making-friends-as-an-adult.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&pagewanted=all&adxnnlx=1344794533-z67DMg4omwMeTeIJB2e0Ug
Not easy finding guy friends in a new city with no established friend base or connections, outside of work. Hanging out with work friends is good, but also need a separate friend base, I believe. It is a similar problem on the female side.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/natalie-thomas/making-friends_b_1678009.html
(Excerpt from article) "Meeting a significant other is hard, no doubt. But, I would argue, making friends in your late 20s and early 30s is harder. At least with a romantic interest there's flirting, chemistry and incentive. And, maybe even the added benefit of making friends with or through them. Now that I'm married, in my early 30s, currently working from home and in a new city, never before has making friends been so challenging.
And, I know I'm not alone. I've had this conversation with plenty who share my plight. So, if there are so many of us in the same boat, what are we waiting for? Let's sail... to Friendship Island, grab some margs and get to chatting!"
Who is the Market?
The market is all male adults post-college life, with a special emphasis on those going through a major life event such as moving or getting married, as an example. I, personally, have moved all over since college and have lived in a number of different cities and it’s been very difficult in terms of building a close-knit friend base at each. Also, being newly married, makes it that much more important to have a strong network of same-sex friends simply for having the balance between significant other and friends.
What Pain Points am I Solving?
I came up with this idea based on personal pain points that I had been going through awhile back. I have a really tight knit group of friends from high school (three of us), but outside of that my only friends have come through my professional/work network. This is okay, but I feel like there also needs to be a separation at some point allowing you to escape work and enjoy friends outside of that. At my last job, I was a sales rep for a territory and didn’t have any colleagues in my area. I was newly married, living in a new city and had zero friends. There are also social leagues and meetup.com that allow people to connect and meet friends. Being in a suburban Bay area city, there were no social leagues within 30 miles and Meetup is more of an activity-based site in which it’s hard to know if you’ll connect with any of the people going. This is where having a same-sex friend matching site will allow you to view and connect with others that share the same interests, allowing someone to build that tight-knit group of close friends. Having this group of guy friends is absolutely essential in regards to a person’s happiness, social life and general well-being.
How I Envision the Site
I see the MVP of this site being simply signing up, building a profile, having search capability based on location and being able to message. Future iterations will include an events section and also more of a social networking aspect where you can gauge your social status within your local community by how many events and personal meetings you attend.
Obviously, I have thought this through and already done some customer discovery testing, but did want to get everyone's valuable feedback before starting my progress thread.
Thanks so much for reading and really look forward to hearing from y'all.
Rob
Looking for some thoughts on the idea below. I have been working on prototypes and testing and just wanted to utilize this awesome forum for some feedback before going into development.
What is the Idea?
BeMyBro (beta) - Check our facebook for daily updates!
Create the world’s largest same-sex friend matching and networking service based upon location, profession, interests and age. It will be targeted at male, early-20 somethings and up, with a main emphasis on people that have relocated for work, moved to a new city or are newly married with a major lifestyle shift.
I will build upon Facebook's platform to uncover and list mutual friends you have in your city that you normally would not have visibility into. To keep users coming to the site (and also include guys that already have established networks), a big emphasis of the site will be based on user-created events. Think pickup basketball games, watching the big game at the bar, a hiking trip, etc.
It is often thought that making same-sex friends is actually more difficult than meeting a significant other, so I am looking to make a taboo idea (dudes searching for dudes online) more mainstream in hopes of improving the adult population’s social lives, general well-being and happiness.
Why is it a Business?
I feel there is a tremendous need for this service which will result in a large user base which in return will mean a strong ad-supported business model allowing very targeted ads based on profile data.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/fashion/the-challenge-of-making-friends-as-an-adult.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&pagewanted=all&adxnnlx=1344794533-z67DMg4omwMeTeIJB2e0Ug
Not easy finding guy friends in a new city with no established friend base or connections, outside of work. Hanging out with work friends is good, but also need a separate friend base, I believe. It is a similar problem on the female side.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/natalie-thomas/making-friends_b_1678009.html
(Excerpt from article) "Meeting a significant other is hard, no doubt. But, I would argue, making friends in your late 20s and early 30s is harder. At least with a romantic interest there's flirting, chemistry and incentive. And, maybe even the added benefit of making friends with or through them. Now that I'm married, in my early 30s, currently working from home and in a new city, never before has making friends been so challenging.
And, I know I'm not alone. I've had this conversation with plenty who share my plight. So, if there are so many of us in the same boat, what are we waiting for? Let's sail... to Friendship Island, grab some margs and get to chatting!"
Who is the Market?
The market is all male adults post-college life, with a special emphasis on those going through a major life event such as moving or getting married, as an example. I, personally, have moved all over since college and have lived in a number of different cities and it’s been very difficult in terms of building a close-knit friend base at each. Also, being newly married, makes it that much more important to have a strong network of same-sex friends simply for having the balance between significant other and friends.
What Pain Points am I Solving?
I came up with this idea based on personal pain points that I had been going through awhile back. I have a really tight knit group of friends from high school (three of us), but outside of that my only friends have come through my professional/work network. This is okay, but I feel like there also needs to be a separation at some point allowing you to escape work and enjoy friends outside of that. At my last job, I was a sales rep for a territory and didn’t have any colleagues in my area. I was newly married, living in a new city and had zero friends. There are also social leagues and meetup.com that allow people to connect and meet friends. Being in a suburban Bay area city, there were no social leagues within 30 miles and Meetup is more of an activity-based site in which it’s hard to know if you’ll connect with any of the people going. This is where having a same-sex friend matching site will allow you to view and connect with others that share the same interests, allowing someone to build that tight-knit group of close friends. Having this group of guy friends is absolutely essential in regards to a person’s happiness, social life and general well-being.
How I Envision the Site
I see the MVP of this site being simply signing up, building a profile, having search capability based on location and being able to message. Future iterations will include an events section and also more of a social networking aspect where you can gauge your social status within your local community by how many events and personal meetings you attend.
Obviously, I have thought this through and already done some customer discovery testing, but did want to get everyone's valuable feedback before starting my progress thread.
Thanks so much for reading and really look forward to hearing from y'all.
Rob
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