Bubble: a social app that found events on its own

Bubble wanted to build a social app for college students, focused on what was happening nearby, with local influencers helping keep people coming back.

We built:

• iPhone app: launched first, for college campuses.
• Android app: with the same features.
• The server behind both apps: including a system that ranked users by the quality of their connections.
• Admin website: to manage ads and watch activity.

The standout feature: when lots of users gathered in one place, the app automatically put a "bubble" on the map, so students could see where the biggest events were.

Bubble took off at UCF, with 40,000 users and 4,000 people using it every day. After losing a key investor, the team shut the app down. We learned a lot about building and growing apps along the way.