March 21

Lower Queen Anne startup seeks to facilitate social serendipity in Seattle and beyond

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A team of recently graduated engineers working out of a home in Lower Queen Anne launched a website last week that aims to get like-minded people together for fun, friendships and dating.

Aptly named Urbandipity, the website provides the opportunity to go out and meet new people by posting personal interests and searching for others with similar interests.

From Urbandipity’s press release:

Urbandipity lets you quickly represent what you’re about and meet people who like what you like. Simply create a post, tag your interests, and spark new connections … At Urbandipity, you have the opportunity to experience Seattle, when you want to and where you want to. Encouraging people to go out and explore is Urbandipity’s founding principle.

The group got together in Seattle after graduating from their respective colleges (Cornell, Duke and the University of Washington) and pondered the pressing problem of socializing in the city, said Co-founder Nick Talwar. Whether it’s because you’re new to the city or your friends are indisposed or it’s an activity that  others you know aren’t into, it’s common to be in the need of someone to go out with, Talwar says.

“We realized there was no easy, right way to get out and meet people who want to do what you want to do, or who like what you like,” said Talwar.

They decided to form Urbandipity to help overcome the challenges of meeting new people amidst the infamous “Seattle freeze” in an easy and efficient way using technology, according to Talwar. He stresses it is not a site like Facebook or other social networking sites that focus on interacting online. The goal is to inspire people to go out and meet face to face rather than staying home on the computer.

“So many of the technologies we see focus on staying within that piece of technology, staying on that site, interacting with people on that site,” said Talwar. “This is just an easy way to meet people in person… It’s about getting out and exploring the city together as quickly as possible.”

Talwar and his friends, Ryan O’Donnell, Hajime Furukawa, Emmett Nicholas and Zachary and Dustin Conrad, have been working on the project every Saturday out of Talwar’s and Furukawa’s home in Lower Queen Anne. Two team members, Nicholas and O’Donnell, have been participating via video conference since leaving the Seattle area.

The twenty-something engineers spent hundreds of hours over the past year and a half working on Urbandipity, often walking the few blocks down to Caffé Vita to have a meeting or Laredo’s Grill to eat and unwind, said Furukawa.

“It’s been a lot of fun working with these guys,” said Furukawa. “It’s definitely really exciting. It’s the first time doing a project on this scale.”

The website focuses on the city of Seattle for activities, but covers people and activities all over the Greater Seattle area. They have hopes to spread to other cities and perhaps even become a revenue-generating enterprise, but presently it’s a local public service, said Talwar.

“We’re engineers, we just like to solve problems and build things to help people,” said Talwar.

The website goes live April 6, but users can create posts now. It requires no sign up or account to begin. Without accounts and with posts expiring after 30 days, the site can remain fresh, said Talwar.

“Whoever is on Urbandipity is looking to go out and have fun and meet someone at that time,” said Talwar.

Urbandipity is having a tweetup (meet-up via Twitter) with Seattle Weekly, Wishpot and Social Magnet Marketing from 5 to 8 p.m. at the Broadway Grill in Capitol Hill on March 31 with raffle prizes and free food.

An Urbandipity video tutorial designed by UW graduate and local photographer and videographer Julia Bruk can be seen here: Urbandipity in 1 minute on Vimeo.


Tags

dating, Dustin Conrad, Emmett Nicholas, Hajime Furukawa, Julia Bruk, Lower Queen Anne, Nick Talwar, Ryan O’Donnell, social networking, startups, Urbandipity, website, Zachary Conrad


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