[USA][BIZ][9] Seeking Tech Cofounder for Happy Hours Based App.

A bit of background on myself prior to info about the app :

I have over 12 years in the restaurant/food service industry along with 5-6 years of running small businesses. I went to college at FIU and UM (hence the username, go canes!) The most recent being a trash valet company that was sold to a larger statewide/regional company. My time in the restaurant industry is what gave me the idea.

About the app :

The idea can be described in a simple statement : People want to eat out. People want to save money. Why not both? The idea is an easy to use app, that shows all food and/or drink specials near you so you can go out to eat and still save money doing it. I currently have a very VERY basic MVP built(I think a demo is more of the correct word to use for it) which runs on the Apple Maps API and uses a Firebase database with a JSON file with all the results that need to be displayed on the map as markers. I thought about something most of us use weekly, if not daily : Google maps. Looking for a place to eat? Gas station? Barber? You open the app and all the results are shown in your immediate area and further beyond if you choose to expand the search distance. *Nothing has been deployed on the App Store or Google Play Store as of yet. I want it to definitely be a lot more polished before publishing it to the store. *

Which brings me to my 2nd point : what I bring to the table.

-I grew up in Miami FL, and have a good amount of connections/classmates in the media(Miami New Times, Miami Food Pug, and others) who I have already spoken to and would be willing to run a story and/or make a post for awareness when it launches. While this isn’t a national publication or a time slot on Shark Tank, this is my initial marketing plan to get word out and gain initial users.

-I also have a verified list of over 100-150 restaurant specials from 10 major cities in the US. I have the name, address, kind of special, dates and times active, etc. I say verified list because I personally called and asked ‘hey I saw a post with this listed as your happy hour special for Friday and Tuesday nights, is this still accurate”

-Last, I cold emailed/called 100s of angel investors, vc firms, etc and have tentative pitch meetings set up once the app is active in the App Store and shows a bit of traction. They liked the idea, but wanted to see initial traction and growth before any considering any investing. I’m not saying any of that is necessary, because I would love to keep as much equity as possible. But I do have that lined up as a potential option if need be.

Who would benefit from this app?

So many people would benefit from this no matter what age, demographic, etc they are. Here are a few examples :

-A family looking for the best price/deal on pizza to get for a family pizza night.

-A broke college student and his friends looking for the best drink specials to make their $10 stretch the furthest.

-A couple looking for a date night, but not wanting to spend too much money out of their budget.

-Someone about to go on their lunch break, but decided they want go get cheap food from somewhere and not eat the leftover lasagna they brought for lunch today.

-Just to name a few quick examples.

The idea itself is not unique, there ARE a handful of competitors. But each with their own problems. Some are too local and were unable to gain traction. Some are a convoluted web app that is hard to navigate, I could go on. Don’t get me started on websites that have them all LISTED….It’s 2023 and no one should be having to read through a list of results to get all the info they need for a restaurant. People want quick and easy. Pull up the app, see the results, choose where you want to eat. But to me, all that means is that there is further validation if others have been trying to do it.

What I’m looking for in a cofounder :

I’m looking for someone to take over the tech side in a CTO type role meaning you would be in charge of any future hires and/or major decisions of any kind regarding the tech side of things while I continue to work on the marketing and everything else. Based on my market research, iOS would be the primary place to launch, but I would definitely want to have it on both in the future. So if you are fluent in something like React, Flutter, etc that would be a big plus.

If you want to talk further about this, send me a PM or comment below!

(I use Apollo for Reddit, so I don’t always see any of those chat messages so please try not to send those!)

Edit : formatting