Natalie Barletta – Opinions Editor
The broke college student is a cliché. However, like most clichés there happens to be a grain of truth to it. Working at a job that pays only minimum wage can be extremely tricky to make ends meet. By the time that you’ve finished paying all of your expenses, you often have little to no money left for things such as going out with friends.
That is until now.
Thanks to the new app Hotspot, students can combine two things that are very important to them–hanging out with their friends, and getting a discount doing so.
“I’ve been working for a year and a half on different apps that I thought could help people develop and express friendship in real life (as opposed to over Facebook or something virtual)”, said the app’s creator, Jasjit Singh. “I think people truly want to be with their friends in real life but the friction and anxiety might limit how often you ask your friends to hang out in real life – and then Facebook likes and comments and wall posts just become easier – even though they might not offer any deeper fulfillment.”
Now how does the app work? You download it, and then sync all of your contacts. Then, a bunch of different places in New Haven to eat or drink show up. You pick one, select a few friends to invite by text message, and you’ve just gotten yourself a discount.
And the best part is? Your friends don’t even have to show up.
You can use the app in many places. Blue State Coffee, Thali Too, and Box 63 are just a few of the businesses that are on board with this unique app. Currently, all of the restaurants in the app are in New Haven, but Singh has big plans to expand.
“Right now New Haven is our test market and the results are pretty exciting so if this continues – expansion is the next step”, said Singh.
I found the app to be really easy to use. After downloading it, I just synced my contacts and then had the option of choosing from a list of places. Since I don’t live too far from New Haven I thought that this would be a good opportunity to see some places downtown with my friends. I work part-time, so every penny counts.
What I really like about the app is that it allows you to meet with friends offline. We are a society that is obsessed with connecting with a screen between us, and often forget the importance of having real life, non-virtual connections.
As our lives get busier as the semester goes on, the app is a perfect reminder to take some time out to meet with our friends, whether it’s someone we just met our lost touch with or just met. And the fact that you get a discount for doing so? Well, it’s an added bonus!
The app combines the best of both worlds-students getting discounts that they so desperately want, and business getting more revenue for the students coming. Plus, if they like it, they probably will come back, and tell their friends about where they went to get coffee. It’s a win-win situation for everyone.
“Local businesses have loved it”, said Singh. They have a really tough time reaching out to people and telling them about deals and happy hours and events. With Hotspot, they can actually “buy” groups of traffic. Even when the deals are really crazy good, they are making money off of them and that’s why they continue to them and continue to tell their friends.”
Photo Credit: Zagat Buzz
