HN, I'm out to fix urban loneliness, help me.

3 points by cousin_it ↗ HN
Three weeks ago I posted here that I'd be resigning soon and asked for suggestions what to do: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=798206 . You gave me some great advice - thanks! A week ago a hair-on-fire idea occurred to me. By yesterday I set up a teaser site and announced it on my little blog. Today I'm here to share the idea and ask for your advice again.

The idea is to fix urban loneliness, picking random people by their self-descriptions and making them party together. The site is http://randomparty.ru . It's in Russian and aimed at Moscow specifically; I'd be actually very glad if other startups stole this idea and used it in other locales. Here's a translation of the homepage text for your convenience:

"Life doesn't have enough variety, as my friend Timer says. Well, we'll make you meet new people. Launching in Moscow on December 1st, sign up in advance. <registration form>"

It has three signups so far :-) Now the battle will start in earnest: I need to reach the demographic of young, pleasant, urban-lonely people in my city. The next few weeks will probably involve no programming, only talking to folks, writing well-crafted text, printing flyers/stickers and distributing them in well-chosen places. Promotion isn't magic - it works by cause and effect, like everything else in life. Still, I wish there were some kind of shortcuts to make my nights and weekends easier (I haven't left my current job yet). Do any ideas spring to your mind?

6 comments

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You could write a "random party" facebook app.
No one uses Facebook in my country. But it's a great idea, thanks.
You could make the app for other countries. After all, there urban loneliness in every major city in the world :)
I love the idea. Any plans on how to make money from it?
Sponsored locations.
Not yet. Right now I'm stuck at finding new users.