Impromptu Part V - Detailing Impromptu

Hello again, Felix readers! Congrats on finishing your exams! Our prior instalments have touched on some of the general do’s and dont’s of setting up a tech start up, and also our personal journey. In this final issue of the term, Tom and I detail Impromptu.

The inspiration for the app stems from our time as students at Imperial where we found that our social life revolved around our department. Unfortunately we did not feel integrated to the rest of the college, let alone our surrounding neighbourhood, and we would have welcomed the means to do things with people nearby (to both make friends and explore the capital). Having surveyed, we found this to be a common theme amongst students, academics and, also, young professionals who struggle to develop a social life outside of their work place. The overriding criticism in this regard was that there is no efficient means of interacting with fellow citizens and that prevalent events apps simply regurgitate “TimeOut” listings, or solely cater to dating/corporate events.

Our solution to this problem was the development of a peer-to-peer (p2p) events platform which tempts users with random events involving people nearby. When thinking about potential USPs, several points were crucial to us. Variety was the first; our own experience had shown that Google was a powerful tool to do specific things but broadening horizons by doing new things was not as easy. Spontaneity was the second; despite the wealth of opportunity London offers, finding things to do at short notice is famously problematic. The third was cost; we are both passionate about ensuring students and charities have free access. As cheesy as it may sound, our motivations are centred on enhancing the student experience. These USPs were bolstered by the creation of a unique x/y browsing interface, and some unique code which we are not at liberty to discuss at this moment.

Practical examples of Impromptu’s use might entail coming out of work with the evening free and no plans in place. A simple browse of the user interface will provide a host of interesting options. One might find someone keen on playing tennis and needing a partner, a group of girls looking for another to join them for a movie, a tourist in town looking for a local to share a drink with, or perhaps, even a group of friends happy for others to join them watching the football. Furthermore, the nature of Impromptu will benefit amateur promoters, university societies and charities (think recruiting people to food drives etc.)

The concept lends itself to any city or town with a university. Our predominant user base will comprise students and young professionals aged 18-30. We also endeavour to engage local businesses that cater to this demographic. Social media will play a major role in our marketing campaigns but we really hope that Impromptu will grow organically and build a loyal userbase. We have plans that will enable the app to evolve with reference to content and to different demographics. We look forward to sharing this information in the new term along with updates of our progress over the summer.

We are on target to launch during Freshers’ week. Prior to this we will be group testing for 6 weeks. If you would like to be a part of this process and have your feedback contribute towards the final product, please forward your email address to impromptusocial@gmail.com

Have a great summer break and join us in September...