Simplifying hanging out

Planning events could leave you feeling like you’re herding cats. You do not have to succumb to the hassles of creating groups, making plans and watching them get canned. MOODOO, a new social hangout app for Android and iOS users that will make spontaneous meet-ups easy. Youth Inc speaks to the co-founder, Lucy Gadkari to get an insight into it.

What was the idea behind its inception and the USP of Moodoo?
We had a mini-eureka moment one day after a particularly frustrating attempt to coordinate dinner with some friends. It was one of those typical scenarios – that we all know only too well – where a simple dinner plan turns into a hundred or so messages pinging back and forth across Whatsapp. Around 30-40 minutes of time goes into furious typing and you still seem to reach no conclusion on the basic facts of where to meet, what time and who’s actually coming. Enough is enough. We figured that there simply had to be a better way! Technology has streamlined nearly everything in the world around us, yet making social plans with friends remained such a laborious process. My business partners and I started working on the idea from that point in time. There have of course been a lot of changes and shifts since our original idea to get to where we are now… but we’re really
excited to have created the ultimate app for everyone who loves meeting up with friends, but doesn’t love the hassle of coordinating it!

There are some apps like Tossup, Who’s Down and others, so what sets you apart from them?
The greatness of Moodoo is two-fold. One: Right now, there’s no way to know which of your friends are free and what they’re in the mood to do, without individually contacting everyone in your contact list! This makes spontaneity very hard work! Moodoo fixes this with its ‘Moodcast’ functionality and keeps you up-to-date with potential meetups around you! This solves a similar problem to recently launched apps such as Who’s Down or Down To Lunch in the USA. However, Moodoo goes a BIG step further. Once you’ve connected with friends, we also help you coordinate the plan. With Moodoo, you can discover nearby venues based on your mood, collaboratively vote on where to go, check who’s coming and update your ETA (Expected Time of Arrival) – all without typing a single letter.

Did you expect the £20,000 funding by The University of Oxford’s Business School Seed Fund and what are your growth plans ?
I don’t think you can ever fully expect anything in the startup world! That’s what makes the journey so fun, yet so treacherous! The process to get the Oxford funding was challenging and involved going through many rounds of interview with the fantastic fund managers at the Saïd Business
School. But we believe we have a big idea and that we have the right team to execute it, so we were always optimistic! We have big plans for Moodoo… while so many things take place online these days, we believe that nothing can replace spending time with friends and family in person. An app that sucessfully helps you do that more often, more simply, has a lot of global potential. Plus, there are lot of exciting directions we can take Moodoo in terms of functionality – whether it’s table reservations, personalised discounts or event discovery. It can all work within Moodoo’s meeting u  ecosystem. So, stay tuned!

What are your marketing plans or engagement strategies for Moodoo India and how does it compare to the UK one?
Our focus is on India for now. While we have a small base of users in London, we first need to establish ourselves as the go-to app for meeting up with friends in one market. Given the spontaneous and social lifestyle of Mumbaikers, we decided to focus our efforts here, and believe that Moodoo can carve out a strong position in the city. In terms of marketing and engagement, we have a fantastic team of student Brand Ambassadors on the
ground who help us spread the word and communicate how useful Moodoo is! And we have a few tie-ups that allow users to access great discounts when they make plans via the app – so far, we’re tied up with Café Zoe, Deepak Cinema and Mad Over Donuts. In addition to that, we use a careful combination of PR, digital advertising and on-the-ground activations, such as college festivals! We’ll be at Malhar Festival in August – so do look out for us and come say ‘hey’ if you’ll be in the neighborhood!