SpotDrop connects friends through shared experiences. The world is full of unique cultures, traditions, and activities that shape the places we know and the people we love. Sharing these experiences with one another brings us closer, but finding them can be difficult.
There is a disconnect between experience seekers (customers) and experience providers (businesses), as the current platforms and systems for discovering experiences are inadequate or broken - they fail to meet the needs of those seeking experience.
Online reviews and platforms like TripAdvisor and Yelp, are unreliable and manipulated. People find it hard to trust the opinion of complete strangers and people they can’t relate to.
Social platforms, like Instagram and TikTok, have big niche communities but were not built with experience seekers in mind and serve more like digital storefronts for physical businesses.
To overcome this, customers have come up with makeshift ways to discover new experiences and rely on people they know and trust. We believe there’s a better way so we built SpotDrop - a social app built around the recommendations from friends and influencers to make the most of the experiences around you…and we’re starting with food.
Founding Story
SpotDrop was born whilst our founder, Arthur Brenninkmeijer, was on the growth team at BeReal. He understood the main driver for their success; creating an environment where friends can be themselves, and realized that there is an important paradigm shift in how people look to get to know each other and stay connected online. He saw an opportunity to go a step further by creating an environment where friends can share the real world experiences that shape who they are. As a foodie, he knows the struggle of finding authentic Spots and when sharing his challenges with other, he realized that many also have trouble navigating current solutions when looking for new experiences. Regardless of the ways people have come up with to find new experiences, the one common thread has been relying on people whose opinion you trust. Coupled with how social media is evolving, building a platform to connect friends through shared experiences is a natural next step.
Foodies on SpotDrop can discover the restaurants, cafes and bars around them recommended by their friends and favorite influencers. We’re bringing together all the trusted recommendations in their network with the convenience and enjoyment of a user experience made exclusively for them. All the Spots foodies see on SpotDrop come from themselves or another foodie they have chosen to follow. SpotDrop provides an infrastructure for foodies to connect with each other and populate their app with content and Spots they want others in their network to enjoy.
The Map screen shows the Spots around you recommended by your network and how many people within your network recommend that location. The map can also be filtered to show specific Vibes, our version of hashtags*,* and Spots from foodies the user wants to see.
We give foodies the option to share photos and videos on the feed, of their experience at a Spot. We understand that foodies look for authenticity and therefore primarily consume content in photo or video format. Foodies want to see what places are actually like, rather than what they show themselves to be.
The value of SpotDrop comes from having people you know and trust on the platform. The Discover screen allows foodies to follow or invite people in their contacts to SpotDrop and connect with foodies their friends follow.
We want to make a foodie’s journey from discovery to experience as effective, meaningful and enjoyable as possible. We want to become the platform foodies rely on to find new experiences and connect with people in their network on a deeper level through the experiences they recommend.
Who is it for?
We’re currently building SpotDrop for GenZs and millennials. These generations are commonly known as the “experience generations”, **being the first to prioritize real world experiences over material belongings. Almost a quarter of their income goes to food, putting food related experiences at the top of their spending habits.
GenZs and millennials are digital natives. They use social platforms to get to know people and remain connected with their network. SpotDrop wants to leverage how these generations use social media and go a step further by allowing them to share experiences that shape who they are rather than maintaining surface level online connections.