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Sam Verdure
UX designer // martial arts enthusiast // nerd

Getting social at NY Tech Day with bfriend

Thousand of tech nerds descended upon Pier 94 on Wednesday for NY Tech Day. (Maybe even a few “regular folk” too…) As students in General Assembly’s UX Design Immersive, we all took a break from our rapid prototyping project to go scope it out.

Outside Pier 94

As I walked around the seemingly infinite space, I couldn’t believe how many great ideas had been turned into really helpful products. Every kind of service was there; Ed tech. Social good. Community resources. Financial tools. There was even a company doing mobile DNA testing!

As impressed as I was by much of the technology, one app really impressed me... and I didn’t even see the app. (What!?)

Meet bfriend, a social app that facilitates new friendships.

I was initially pulled in by their signage. Brightly colored, the app’s message is clear, friendly, and fun:

bfriend’s Purpose: Match with Great People. Build New Friendships. Explore your city together.

I don’t know about you, but I can’t tell you how many conversations I’ve had as an adult that go something like this:

  • “Ugh it’s so hard making new friends.”
  • “How am I supposed to meet people? Everyone’s wrapped up in their own stuff.”
  • “I just moved, where am I supposed to meet people?!”

With so many apps focused on dating, it’s about time we leveraged technology to connect the other (arguably, more important) social relationships in our lives. It seems so obvious now, doesn’t it?

I was very impressed by bfriend’s founder, Todd Folk. His positive energy was off the charts. He has so clearly identified this collective societal problem, and is contributing his solution.

bfriend will allow users to populate a profile with interests and be be matched with other people nearby based on those mutual interests. The app will also give suggestions for activities and events, to get friend matches off the internet and out into the world. Oh, and you won’t be able to select for gender either, so no sneaky dates.

Todd and his team are working hard to start Beta testing shortly. I can’t wait to see how they plan to build this out. If their initial branding is any indication, it looks to be a promising venture. You can bet I signed up to be a tester!