Everyone loves to let their hair down, have a dance and a pint (or three) every now and then. But finding the best venues, music and deals can leave some a little less than inspired.
For Bath University student Daniel Ghadimi (pictured right), navigating poorly designed sites looking for happy hours, attempting to call night clubs to book tables and missing out on hidden gem bars used to be a frustratingly regular occurrence.
“We want to be constantly innovating and building technology which enables everyone to engage with the nightlife community in the way they want to”
Daniel tells us: “I just feel that if we can put a man on the moon we can build technology which gives people the nightlife content they want and all the facilities required to plan and book a night out in one place.”
Taking matters into his own hands, Daniel came up with the idea for Social Wise – an app and intelligent nightlife assistant that allows its users to view personalised and live updates on the best deals in local bars and clubs as well as making in-app bookings.
“[We] are exploring exciting technology solutions to make nights out safer for everyone”
Daniel adds: “We want to be constantly innovating and building technology which enables everyone to engage with the nightlife community in the way they want to. Whether they occasionally head down the pub for their favourite craft beer or are into underground raves we want to create the perfect user experience for them.
An ‘appy assistant: Social Wise provides personalised nightlife
content for the perfect night out
“Further down the line we want to expand our technology solutions for the industry by building technology which enables people to manage the venues more effectively and are exploring exciting technology solutions to make nights out safer for everyone.”
Idea to world-class tech
Daniel is now building his idea into a business with the help of Bristol-based startup incubator Entrepreneurial Spark (E-Spark) and Richard Godfrey, founder of Bath-based software consultancy Rocketmakers that has helped many local startups to succeed.
Daniel tells us, “E-Spark is amazing, it is a great community of like-minded people who help each other in every way possible. Whether through relevant contacts or experience, people have helped me overcome challenges and provided honest opinions and time when I needed people to bounce ideas off.
“Richard from Rocketmakers is a genius, previously my creativity was limited by my technical knowledge and what I thought was possible, but when you have an experienced CTO like Richard involved it allows you to be more creative, knowing that he can solve almost any problem you throw at him. Richard gives us the confidence we need to approach people and say we will deliver world-class technology.”
“We will be exhibiting at the Unbound Festival in London on the 19th and 20th of July where we will be pitching to 80+ of Europe’s most active investors”
Now inching closer to hitting his funding target, Daniel hopes to launch the app in London first and Bristol and Bath by next summer.
But not before getting involved in UnBound50, one of his proudest moments since setting up Social Wise. He explains: “Unbound50 recognises Europe’s 50 ‘most exciting and innovative startups’ and is probably our biggest achievement. We will be exhibiting at the Unbound Festival in London on the 19 and 20 of July where we will be pitching to 80+ of Europe’s most active investors.
“I am also incredibly proud to have attracted great talent to our team including Jonathan Tuck – co-founder of ZapGo, Jo Mosaku – Skype’s first key business advisor and Anders FC – founder of CompanyX.”
Learning along the way
Despite his successes, getting started on building a dream app wasn’t an easy task for Daniel, who tells us: “I wish I’d known that there are a lot of people out there who do want to help and are interested in helping the next generation of startups. This means there are many opportunities to learn from experienced people.
“Between E-Spark, YENA and SETsquared there is almost always something for young entrepreneurs [in Bristol]”
“I’ve learned that your product doesn’t need to be perfect from the start, it will change and it will get better as you learn more about the industry and technology. Therefore it is important to always learn as much as possible because the strength of the team will determine the quality of the changes.
However, being based in Bristol has helped a great deal, as he explains: “Bristol is a great city, there are a lot of interesting events at the Engine Shed. There is an incredibly active startup community and the city is constantly becoming more and more startup focussed, most recently with the Oracle Accelerator moving to Bristol. Between E-Spark, YENA and SETsquared there is almost always something for young entrepreneurs.”
Being based in Bristol also means interacting with other incredibly successful startups. Daniel agrees: “Companies like Ultrahaptics are incredible. Their technology will certainly change many industries. They’re only just getting started and I’m looking forward to seeing what they achieve.”
Thanks to Daniel for taking the time to tell us all about Social Wise. To stay in the know and be ready for the app’s launch, take a look at the Social Wise website or follow them on Twitter here: @SocialWise_App.
