Interview with John Kagit, CEO of Socialeyes
Socialeyes is a fun and easy way for you to socialize with your friends and the people around you. Our app lets you share your spontaneous plans with nearby friends via notifications.
What does it do?
Socialeyes is a recently launched app that aims to bring the spontaneity of the real world to the mobile social network arena. With Socialeyes, users can now share their real-time moods, plans, pictures, and specifically their location with their contacts. The location and activity-based app seeks to bring users together through their present and future plans, adding a new dimension to their social networking experiences.
Who is your startup aimed at?
We love being spontaneous and we know we cannot always plan our daily lives. We seek to target social media users that are not only looking for practicality but also a rich visual and user friendly interaction with their connections. The Socialeyes app, which allows users to sync their existing social circles, looks to break down the parameters set by older platforms and maximize the user experience by providing the current information on events that they are looking for. Our main target audience would be young working professionals in major cities and college students.
How does your startup stand out against its competitors?
Unlike traditional social media that looks at past experiences, Socialeyes focuses on connectivity in the present and the future moments, allowing users to be natural and to make spontaneous plans. The platform gives you that real-time sense of knowing how your friends are doing and where they are, and if they are up for having a drink right now or if they are looking to go for a run with someone.
There is a certain spontaneity to life that no social media application can capture, and that is the gap that Socialeyes looks to close. If you want to plan a trip, or go play basketball you can create an activity invitation easily on the app by expressing your mood. The app then notifies your friends within a specific radius allowing them to take the opportunity to join you,
Where did the idea for the startup come from?
Mobile phone usage to access social networking services continues to grow exponentially, more users are seeking out newer and better ways of connecting with their friends to share their experiences.
The market is becoming increasingly geared towards the mobile section of connectivity, and users want innovative platforms that will give them options to do things now, to connect now, and to be able to plan. This is where Socialeyes can make a difference as it combines a location-driven socializing platform with real-time notification.
Did you have any concerns when starting your business, if so what were they?
The market is very competitive market and entering this market was a risky decision. However, as we evolved and improved our product, we realized that the gap we concentrate on can be captured by a unique solution that we try to provide with Socialeyes. Another concern was to raise enough capital to get the product going, and we did successfully raise $250K from an angel investor.
What is your business background, and what got you interested in startups?
I come from a family of entrepreneurs. It might be a bit of a cliché, but I find this spirit in my genes. I have my BA in Business Administration, and then I worked for over three years as an auditor in finance world. At that point, I realized that finance was not a good fit for me and that is why I came down to San Diego to get my MBA from USD. My diploma concentrated on both marketing and entrepreneurship, and in those years I started my first project, which was an e-commerce website. This series of events brought me to the start of Socialeyes, when I decided that I can actually make my friends’ social lives easier and more fun.
How did you initially raise funding for your company?
It started when I talked to our investor about the idea. It turned out he also had the same problem in his life, and he could actually see this app becoming a solution for this problem. Then we had a detailed talk and I convinced him to become a part of the project.
What has been your greatest achievement so far?
My greatest achievement so far was to make people believe that Socialeyes could eventually become a very popular app.
How have you kept your business relevant and engaged with your audience over the last three years?
We all enjoyed developing Socialeyes and everyone around us believes in what we are doing. Of course we had to encourage some of our friends from time to time, but we are glad to see that we have an active and loyal user base, even though we are still in beta.
How long has your startup been in the making, and who is the team behind the business?
We started working on Socialeyes in January 2013. We are six people. Four engineers, one designer and one business guy. We are also actively seeking a growth hacker to join our driven team.
What has been your biggest challenge so far as a startup owner?
Getting the word out. It is a crowded market place and it is really hard to make your voice be heard.
In the coming year, what would you like to achieve with your business?
We have a few surprises lined up. The most exciting one would be that we will be introducing gamification to our social app. The things you do in real life will determine your personality in the app, which is pretty cool as we have observed in testing. An Android app is also on the way. We will have some changes in our UI too.
What has been your most valuable lesson so far since starting your business?
Having a good team and a good idea are the most important things in internet world. Work with talented people that you trust, and come up with crazy ideas that can change the game.
Finally, if you could give one piece of advice to someone thinking about starting a business, what would it be?
If money is your first priority, don’t do it. If you have passion to change the things around you for better, do not hesitate for a second. Remember, it is the execution not the idea that will make the difference.
