Greg Isenberg started his first company at age 13 and sold his previous one to StumbleUpon in 2013. He recently raised $1.85m from Greylock and others for his new app, after living on college campuses for the past year. Greg is here to share what he's learned with the community.
Getting a social app to go viral on college is the holy grail. Facebook, Tinder, Snapchat have used universities to propel themselves to billion dollar companies.
When we were the midst of launching Islands (Slack for College), I decided to haul my 28 year old a$$ back to college to go live among our users. It was the best decision I made. The insights were invaluable. Here’s a few:
1. Snap Map is quietly taking over college. “Where’s Sarah right now?”, “is Jimmy hanging with Michelle?” “Is the bar busy?” It’s the defacto FBI tool on campus. 🕵️
2. GroupMe is still one of the top 4 social apps on campus. Yes, you totally read that correctly, I repeat GroupMe (owned by Microsoft) is still an incredibly popular communication tool. Its uses range from class to greek life. 🗣
3. Snapchat stories is far from dead. What you put on your Instagram stories is very different then what you put on your Snapchat stories. Snap is still way more personal, Insta is way more curated. There is room for both. 👯
4. Other apps that have momentum right now: Bumble, Facetune (mostly women using it), Picolo (drinking game), Starbucks (50% of students using the app for payments over cash/debit). 🔥
These insights helped our company position who we are and who we want to be. At Islands, we’re reinventing how college students find each other, connect with communities, be in the know and build movements. We’re the social tissue of college.
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