U-N-I
| Name: Chehuan (Stan) Wu
NYU affiliation: Stern NYU status: Alumni |
Did you enter last year?: No
Do you have any teammates?: Yes How many, including yourself?: 2 |
Concept Name
U-N-I (Sounds like ‘You and I’, also “uni” is short for college)
High Concept Statement
U-N-I is a socializing app for university and graduate school students. Users must have an .edu email address in order to join the platform.
Status Quo
Students are restricted to socializing with peers at their own school and do not have many avenues to meet new people across different campuses. This limits their network and makes it difficult for them to meet people who would otherwise be a perfect match, whether for friendship or a relationship.
Competition
There is no social app that integrates both events and dating based on education history.
Events: Whova is focused on professional events, while Eventbrite is focused on any and all events.
Dating: There are many platforms such as Tinder, OKCupid, Hinge, and Coffee Meets Bagel. These allow users to filter by basic characteristics like age, ethnicity, height, and location. However, these cannot filter by school, which users care about and can lead to strong matches.
Solution
U-N-I has the event functionality of Whova and dating factor of Coffee Meets Bagel. Users are required to have .edu email addresses for security screening. Users receive event and relationship matches based on their alma maters or school preferences. This allows students to expand their networks and meet people who are likely to share common experiences and therefore be good matches.
Revenue Model
U-N-I will have a freemium model. Fees will come from: 1) event advertising, 2) mystery matching algo, 3) graduates can pay a fee to continue using U-N-I after they graduate, 4) additional matches, 5) added dating functionality (incognito mode, super likes, etc.), 6) four-on-four date nights.
Which platform would you like to launch your app on?
iPhone
Which category best describes your app?
Social Networking