Two University of Michigan graduates and one current Michigan student are launching an iOS app that they hope will change the way you party.

I sat down with one of the founders of StatusOwl (@StatusOwl) to learn about the new app, and what it’s like to launch a start-up in Southeast Michigan. He asked to remain anonymous because the StatusOwl team views the app as a crowdsourcing platform for the community and “taking ownership of it in our eyes sounds wrong.”

Here’s some of our conversation.

Note: This interview was edited for clarity.

Q: Let’s start off with the basics. What is StatusOwl?

A: StatusOwl is a real-time guide for nightlife. Users can post and view statuses about different nightlife venues. Statuses allow users to not only describe what is happening at a venue, but also rate a venue’s occupancy and line length in real-time. Users can also add public or private venues giving StatusOwl users the ability to post statuses about virtually any party going on nearby. Private venues are only visible to the venue creator’s friends. (The app is integrated with Facebook, so the friends you have on Facebook that have joined StatusOwl will automatically be your friends. You also have the option to add friends on the app that you weren’t friends with before.) StatusOwl adds the social+informative aspect to nightlife making the user experience fun and engaging.

Q: How’d you get the idea for StatusOwl?

A: Our freshmen year, two of us were out at a fraternity party that had just been shut down. We knew that that there was another house/frat party 20 minutes away from us, but didn’t know what it was like inside at that moment. We texted our friends and got no answer. We looked on Facebook and found no “live” information, but only the event posting. We thought to ourselves, why not create an app that lets people know what different nightlife venues are like in real-time? And since then, we started our journey in creating StatusOwl. We never wanted people to be in the same predicament that we were in and wanted to solve this need in an efficient way.

Q: But how is StatusOwl different than apps like Zipline or Life Hacker that also check wait times for lines?

A: StatusOwl is different since its nightlife specific and tells people about different nightlife venues. Also StatusOwl has a social+informative aspect about it that these apps don’t have (post about experiences, have your own profile page, add your own venue, add friends on StatusOwl, etc). With StatusOwl, users can post about their experiences as well as line length and the occupancy. We also allow users to add their own venues to inform their friends how it is in real-time.

Q: This seems like it would especially helpful for college students who have a geographically condensed, active nightlife. I know you’re launching in Ann Arbor this fall. Do you plan to expand to other college campuses?

A: Yes as we get a strong user base in Ann Arbor we plan on expanding to the college campuses of big universities nearby such as Michigan State, University of Illinois, Northwestern, etc. While we gain a critical mass in college towns, we will also expand to the outskirts of the city as our targeted demographic is beyond just college students (21–35). We believe it is best to start in these college towns as college students are more interconnected with each other through different organizations such as Greek Life.

Q: How have you found the process of building a startup in Ann Arbor? Do you feel there’s a tech community in Southeast Michigan, or are you on your own?

A: The process of building a startup in Ann Arbor definitely has its perks. University of Michigan’s resources have definitely helped us in developing our product. All of our legal work has been done by the University of Michigan Law School’s Entrepreneurship Clinic and so this saved us lots of time and money. I feel as if there is a tech community in Southeast Michigan. The startup scene in Ann Arbor with Tech Arb and Ann Arbor Spark is definitely on the rise. We are potentially thinking of applying to Ann Arbor Spark’s accelerator to receive mentorship and funding while we are here. Spark’s resources could be a huge boost to the progress of our app in terms of developing new features for users as well as monetizing our business.

Q: It sounds like these resources in Ann Arbor and at U of M are really encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship. But it couldn’t have been all easy, right? What have been some of your biggest challenges in starting StatusOwl?

A: One of the biggest challenges that we have had with StatusOwl is the transition from something that we were working on on the side to treating it as a full-time job. During the year, working on StatusOwl and developing the iOS application were a challenge, as all of us were still taking classes and dealing with college. During the year, we would be working long nights on StatusOwl after coming back from class and finishing up our respective assignments. Since we have graduated, our work ethic has definitely become a lot more structured. We have been working full-time this summer and have accomplished a significant amount.

Q: I don’t want to be rude with this question, but it’s on my mind. How are you planning to monetize the app?

A: Not a problem haha. We will extract all of our revenue from the nightlife venues themselves. To do this we plan on implementing a freemium business model. The user described above will use the free account while promoted accounts are for venue managers. With a promoted account a venue manager will gain complete access to their corresponding venue page on StatusOwl. This will include access through a portal to the various data we will collect from the statuses about their venue. For example, this will include demographic data of people at their venue plus the average ratings they are receiving. Based on this data and other information, they will then have the ability to purchase promoted statuses on the “home feed” in order to communicate with potential customers. In return for these services, we will charge a monthly fee for a promoted account and a small payment for each promoted status.

Q: So these venues that pay StatusOwl could let users know about happy hour deals or other special events going on?

A: These venues that pay StatusOwl will get a dashboard filled with different metrics such as average wait line, average occupancy, gender ratios, the different times people come into the bar on a daily basis, etc. So from this information they have the ability to optimize their revenue on a specific night through our promotional status feature. A promotional status consists of a live status perched at the top of the “home feed” that tells users about a special that will happen per hour. (So lets say from 9 — 10 pm there would be a Rick’s special of $2 kamikaze shots). This allows the venue to connect to their potential customers in real-time to get them to come earlier to the bar.

We talked to a bar in Ann Arbor, and they told us how people last year would come to their bar at 11:30, while this year people would come to the bar around 12. They said that this half an hour change in time of when people arrive on a daily basis can be the difference between making a million a year to about $400,000. And so our promotional status feature allows these different venues to connect with their potential customers in real-time, hoping to sway them into their bar at an earlier time to optimize revenue.

Q: How has the reaction been from different nightlife venues you all have approached with StatusOwl? Are they skeptical?

A: The reaction from the nightlife venues so far has been great. We have about 17 partnerships with bars in Ann Arbor already and are pretty confident that we will be able to increase this number within the next few weeks.

Q: With your launch date fast approaching, how are you all planning to market the app?

A: We are planning to market the app by having student ambassadors on campus that will help spread the word to different student organizations including Greek Life. We would like to put forth a group effort in making this application successful and having students realize that this is a University of Michigan app and Ann Arbor specific. We are also having promotional events the first few weeks on campus at different bars and clubs such as Rick’s American Cafe, The Brown Jug, Blue Leprechaun, and Rush Street. At these promotional events we will be having specific StatusOwl drink specials as well as giving out prizes to participants on StatusOwl for miscellaneous things such as “the funniest hoot of the night”.

Q: Are there more apps in your future?

A: There can definitely be more apps in the future. We are a creative team always looking for different opportunities to develop new applications.

Q: One more question. Biggest piece of advice to someone looking to launch a start up?

A: One thing that we’ve realized is that when you start a business make sure you treat it like a full-time job and not something that you’re doing on the side. When running a startup, no one will be there to tell you when or when not to work. Everything that you accomplish is a direct result of the time and effort that you have put in.

Q: I lied. One more question! I want to know more about the StatusOwl team. Do you guys like to kick back at a casual bar and enjoy a few beers or hit the dance floor?

A: The StatusOwl team works morning to night on a daily basis, regardless if it’s a weekend. After doing work during the week, we usually go to the casual bars in Ann Arbor to hit happy hours. We occasionally go to dance at some of the clubs in Ann Arbor with our friends on campus to change it up a bit and take our minds off of work.

Elizabeth McLaughlin is a senior at the University of Michigan.