Apply HN: Krewe- Help people make a group of close friends in their neighborhood | Hacker News Reader

Apply HN: Krewe- Help people make a group of close friends in their neighborhood

gokrewe.com

20 pointsbaron81624 comments

Growing small groups is an interesting idea. How will you match them? Although the faq says not on interests, you still need to decide who to put into which group if there are too many people in an area, just random? If you just "fill groups" on after the other, you'd actually implicitly match on "early adopterness"

When users sign up they enter their home address and pick an age group and a category (professional, creative, blue collar, none). It'll then search for a group within a half mile that matches all their two criteria (that isn't already full). If it doesn't find one, then it'll create a new one and the next person to sign up in the area with the same criteria will join.

So it is essentially random, but so is everything. The kids you were friends with in school were just the ones who lived in your school district. Mature adults are mostly able to get along with anyone.

Even if you don't like the people you're placed with at first, you do get to grow your group and meet more people. But some of my best friends are people I didn't really get along with at first. We became close because we spent a lot of time together. I influenced them and they influenced me. We discovered new common interests, and built a culture around it.

I think having a group of friends can be a situation where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. There are safeguards to remove people who really don't fit in, but I really hope that people will take the time and try to get along with those they're placed with. If it doesn't work, then implementing some sort of interest based system wouldn't be that hard.

The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that the system will work as is. Adults who want to meet people and make friends are really easy to get along with. We needed interests to bind us together when we were young kids in school because we hadn't had any life experiences by that time. We had all essentially lived the same life up until we graduated college. But once you're an adult, you have so much more to talk about--so many stories to tell.

This is interesting. I have definitely seen a similar idea before, even down to the "six people" setup.

A quick search turned up: https://www.smeeters.com/ http://www.sixr.com.au/ https://www.joingrouper.com/

It would be interesting to know how successful those services have been.

Those are all dating apps/services. If you're a guy who wants to do it, you have to have two other single male friends who are willing to do it with you. If you're new in town and don't know anyone, you're sh out of luck. You can use Krewe if you're one of the 60 million people in the US who says they're lonely.

Groupers also a one time event, with people from all over town. Krewe is meant to get you to see the same group over and over again.

I do know people who have done Grouper and have loved it. Six seems like a pretty cozy number. You can fit into a booth at a bar, and hold a single group conversation pretty comfortably.

This is cool. The small groups and geographic area are intriguing... Fun to think about knowing and being friends with lots of people in my immediate area

Interesting idea. My wife and I joined something similar but specifically for new parents in Seattle called "PEPS" (http://www.peps.org) when we had kids. We got together once a week for twelve weeks. We had a facilitator who loosely guided us in a discussion theme. Of course we all had one big thing in common (kids born within about 3 months of each other), but it was still surprising how well we got along. I've heard similar comments from people in other groups.

So, a few questions...

1. Where are you right now in bringing this to life?

2. What are you finding difficult about getting this launched, and what are you doing to address those challenges?

3. Describe the person who really fits your target audience - what defines them as a group?

I've soft launched it. You can sign up now. Still in the early days, so not a huge user base yet. But it's fully capable of doing what's promised.

I really think anyone who doesn't have a really great network or feels like their part of a community would benefit greatly from using it. It's not just about meeting a few people, or make a couple friends, it's about building a really powerful community.

However, the people I think would benefit most are the ones who have recently moved to a new city or even a new neighborhood in the same city and don't know many people nearby. Kids coming out of college would be an easy target, but middle and old age people also tend to be the most socially isolated.

As someone who is in the scenario you describe (new city - don't know many people), I really love this idea. I would definitely use it if it were a big thing, but it will be a less than ideal experience in the early stages (not many prospective friends/groups).

I think one of your biggest challenges would be getting enough users to start. Also, it seems like you'd run into problems that face online dating, where if the service is successful, your users will no longer need you. Have you thought at all about how to deal with that problem?

It's true that there aren't many filled out groups yet. If it were an online dating type thing where you have to choose people from a list, then it would be a problem. But placing people into groups is handled automatically, choice is removed from the equation. That's definitely a feature, not a bug. No one in history has ever chosen who their friends from a big list. User's sign up and then forget about it. When they get a notification that people join their group, then they can become active on the platform. I can grow slowly and organically to get to the point where groups fill out and they start hanging out together. Once they do and they really start loving it, I hope it'll pick up a lot.

I think there is already a lot there for people to want to keep using it. First, expanding the group is kind of a slow process (so you're given enough time to become close to people). So if you want to have that expansive network, then you'll keep using it. A lot of the time on dating apps, you're looking for one person and then you're done. But you're allowed (expected) to have multiple friends. So it doesn't end with your first group. Second, I think the group messaging system is pretty solid. You're "born" into, so you don't have to go to Facebook messenger and set up a group there. Third, the activity creator is also really solid. It get's rid of all the back and forth involved in getting people to hang out, so it helps alleviate that pain point too.

I have a lot of other ideas for features to add in the future that will keep people engaged, but I won't get into them here.

Hi HN,

Krewe places people into a group of six of their peers who all live within a half mile radius of each other. Since it starts with a small group dynamic, it's comfortable to meet up at first. And since everyone lives so close to each other, they can meet up often and become really close. Eventually, they can expand the group and build up a strong local community and a network they can rely on to succeed in their careers, find romantic partners, and enjoy an incredible social life.

Interesting idea, and definitely different than any other social networking platform I've seen. If this is already active, have any "krewes" been matched together yet? If so, did you get feedback from the krewemembers on how they liked the experience? It seems to me like it wouldn't be easy to get six random strangers to actually commit to meeting up for something.

It is active, but still a bit too early for that.

What’s your plan to reaching profitability? Have you run any ”pilot groups” and how did they get along?

I have a lot of ideas for revenue and I don't want to get into all of them in public. The app includes an activity creator that suggests a few bars, restaurants, and coffee shops in the area to meet up at. I could have establishments sponsor it and they would be featured at the top. We could hold our own ticketed events or advertise local events. A freemium model could also be explored.

Good ideas!

Why do you think proximity is the most important factor in friendships? Or does proximity and ease-of-hangout trump other factors for friendship like common interests?

How will you get people to use your platform? What's the advantage of this over meetup.com?

Proximity is important because it promotes persistence. Having a group of people right in you neighborhood means you can get together everyday if you wanted to. If you've had a long day at work and you get home late, you can still walk down to a local pub and sip on a beer for 20 minutes with your friends, complain about your boss, and then head home. You don't have to make plans weeks in advance.

I'm hardly able to endure traffic to see my own friends who I already know I like. I think people aren't going to go see people they don't really know yet if they have to trek across the city to do it.

Meetups are ok for meeting people, but they're not great for making good friends. They can be really crowded and intimidating, or you have to awkwardly ask someone out on a friend date, and it's likely that they could live kind of far from you. Krewe starts you out with a small group, so you're singling someone out when you're trying to do something with them.

This is a really good point I was definitely undervaluing. Casual friendships are useful for eliminating loneliness and the feeling of not knowing anyone in your neighborhood.

I would definitely try this in a new city, but maybe not if I've lived somewhere for a while and have an established friend group.

Can you talk about your team? How many people are working on this full time, what are their skill sets, how long have they been working together, and previous accomplishments and work experience?

It's only me at this point. That's definitely my biggest disadvantage, I know.

It might not be the biggest disadvantage if you're building the right product for people. Yet, having good and right cofounder & team can help you a lot.

Did I see this pitched on 4chan?

I've never posted on 4chan, so I don't think so.

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