> Somebody said once the ultimate app would help people get laid.

I've first heard that from an old jwz rant.

http://www.jwz.org/doc/groupware.html

Relevant passage:

But with a groupware product, nobody would ever work on it unless they were getting paid to, because it's just fundamentally not interesting to individuals.

So I said, narrow the focus. Your "use case" should be, there's a 22 year old college student living in the dorms. How will this software get him laid?

That got me a look like I had just sprouted a third head, but bear with me, because I think that it's not only crude but insightful. "How will this software get my users laid" should be on the minds of anyone writing social software (and these days, almost all software is social software).

"Social software" is about making it easy for people to do other things that make them happy: meeting, communicating, and hooking up.

The great thing about drinking is that it's an inherently social experience. Where are my friends going? What great deals or events can I find -- and show off to everyone I know?

Then there's the power of the crowd. One extra customer is great for a bar, sure. But 20 people coming in as a group? That's worth offering a steep discount to. Social deals meet the super variable, high-margin world of nightlife.

Daniel,

You are actually spot on with a lot of problems we are encountering (and solving!) right now. we hope apps & push notifications will help spread the idea.

the auction deal is interesting too... but we hate the Groupon model. maybe giving the local businesses more control is a step in the right direction?

Perhaps so. The point here is that there is a tie-in between wanting cheap drinks and being part of a crowd. The bigger the crowd, the more bargaining power you have. Also it helps folks get out and meet each other. So instead of just beer, they're guaranteed to go to a place that has a lot of activity.

Lots of ways to do this, I think.

Thinking some more about traction, I would try playing the social angle if at all possible. And I don't mean Facebook, I mean the idea that college kids want to be part of a group full of other college kids. They're very social. If you had some way of telling who was going where (or who was already drinking where) you could ping people who've used the system in the past with current opportunities. Stuff like "Hey, it's $2 beer night at Joe's and 42 people are there right now. Interested?"

Like everything else in the startup universe, this is going to be a process of hypothesis and experimentation. I've personally found that getting people to toss out ideas that sound cool is very easy -- and useless. It's really a matter of having the market validate ideas, not HNers. Here's hoping you don't have to iterate a large number of times.

For your use case, people use Facebook and word of mouth. College towns are social enough and close in proximity enough they don't need these sorts of apps. VT is my alma mater and I guarantee you I would have not used an app to tell me where to drink.

Once you have enough friends Thursday through Sunday morning just tend to happen. Social apps is definitely the wrong way to think about it.

We're not about trying to replace the experience of word-of-mouth drink specials. We just want to make that happen even easier. In larger cities it is difficult to keep track of drink specials for all of the bars (especially when they change so often), and many times I find specials on the site that I didn't know existed or have changed from what I thought they were. When you go out with friends, you usually go with a small group because it is hard to plan otherwise, why not make it easier? Also, your use case doesn't apply to grocery store or liquor specials...that I know of.

Maybe so. I guess I don't drink enough to adopt software that saves me a couple bucks on a drink. When I buy alcohol in a store I go for convenience unless I'm buying single malt scotch. And if I'm going out with friends I choose atmosphere and selection over price. Just my input. Good luck.

Exactly. These college towns are often so small that a whole app for people to save a few bucks would most likely not be incredibly popular. Then again, I'm not much of a drinker so my point of view might be a little bit skewed on this one and the target audience might provide a genius business model. I guess we'll see.

+1 for same alma matter :)

We 100% agree, we're going to make this about the crowd, that's Step 2!