Happy to answer questions about hikewith.me :-)
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@rrhoover & @allnick thanks for your feedback.
Without doubt, gaining the necessary user base is a key challenge, but so it is for every startup. And given the fact that nobody else had a real breakthrough in this market, opens also a new world of possibilities. There are always two sides of the table.
Rather than trying to be the another local social-network about everything, our approach is to focus on a few things well. For example, some of the greatest entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey have all been known to favor long walks for conversations. And so do we, because walking works excellent as a catalyst to really connect with each other, to give each other your undivided attention.
Too much of our communications happens these days behind a screen. Of course the upside is that it's very easy to connect with many people, who you probably wouldn't otherwise have access to. The downside however is that online relationships can leave feeling us lonely, because it isn't a psychological replacement for in-person interactions after all.
We set ourself the mission to change this evolution, cause isn't it much nicer to get each other known in person rather than through texting? Thereby we use the benefit of modern technology to show our users people they probably would have otherwise never met and direct all further communications to face-to-face interactions.
The worst thing that can happen is really only that you hate each others nuts, but at least you shared an activity you both like doing – going for a walk, exploring cities or landscapes.
Btw since 2013 I'm mostly on the road and live our product, so if you're currently around Lisbon, ping me for a walk and talk!
I've seen a few location-based, social activity/sports discovery apps try to enter the market but few have taken off (afaik -- tell me if I'm wrong). It's hard to build network effects to make them valuable enough. (cc @allnick)
That said, I like their direction of narrowly focusing on one specific activity: hiking. Although it limits the audience, it's easier to market to individuals that like to hike. They're also focusing on the value of meeting people over the activity itself. Ie, hiking is a vehicle to connect people offline.
@rrhoover Check out http://www.spots-app.com/. They went after outdoors activities. Bottom line is that it's incredibly hard to make these systems work without leaders who are responsible for organizing people. Most people still don't feel comfortable meeting up with strangers quickly.
Good thoughts, @michael_xander! I'm also a fan of walking meetings, especially around the Yerba Buena loop in SF (cc @andrewchen).
Props for building something to bring people together IRL. It's a a hard space to operate in but as you eluded to, offline connections are often the most meaningful.
@michael_xander ... still like the idea as I did when I built the first version of Holler years ago. Your implementation also looks beautiful. However I hope you have another job on the side because this space is incredibly challenging to crack :)
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