Even though I have done public speaking at many events and conference, I still have a problem with starting a conversation with strangers. If a friend provides some background info and makes the initial introduction, I can easily take it from there and start an interesting conversation with anyone.

If I see someone staring at me from across the room, I would feel more uneasy than flattered. Call me “shy” but I’m sure many women have that same mixed feeling. Worse yet, when I want to have a conversation with them, I have no idea what to say after the initial hello.

People goes to events wanting to meet and connect with other people, but a majority has problems with coming up with a good opening line. In every social events, most people in the room are one or two degrees of separation from each others — especially in big condensed cities like New York, San Francisco, Saigon, or Singapore. They may have mutual friends or even a lot of common interests but such information is not available at the time or the place.

I have over 20 different OTT apps on my iPhone — including Viber, WeChat, LINE, Kakao, BeeTalk, etc. from local to global on my phone. I have just as many dating apps — including Tinder, OkCupid, Paktor, Let’s Date, Twine, etc. but none of them help to solve the problem —making meaningful connections in real time. For those of us who can’t easily start a conversation with a complete stranger, we need a little help.

I shared my problem with my friend, Leslie Nguyen. I want more content than just filtered photos and unwitty taglines. We had studied computer science together at USC so approaching the problem from a technology angle was expected. How can we create a tool to help people make genuine connections with the people around them in real time?

On the following day, I went to a restaurant’s grand-opening event, and I helped to connect a few friends who might have some mutual interests and possibly opportunities for working together in the future. Then I asked my friend, “Eh, what if we have an app that will do this job instead of me? It will suggest people to meet and why you might want to meet them.” This idea intrigued him. Immediately the next day, that friend, Vu Duy Thuc, came to my apartment to discuss the idea with Leslie and me . He left that day as co-founder and first investor of our company.

We called the company Tappy — incorporated in Singapore in March 2014 — and this is the first chapter of our history.

“Connecting the right people, at the right place, at the right time”

Thuy Muoi — Singapore — May 2014