The friendship app, Friendchise, was built on a simple thought, creating a space for people to make meaningful real-world connections over food and drinks. In the post-COVID world, there are many digital connecting platforms with endless swiping and scrolling, but not one that lets you flexibly choose who you meet, when, and where, and that is focused on live meetups.
Who especially needs a friendship app like Friendchise?
For people who change their location, move to a new country or city, meeting people is essential to integrating into the new place. Friendchise friendship app aims to be the easiest way to meet people in new locations.
The different groups of people who frequently change their location are rather huge. The estimated number of digital nomads in 2022 was 35 million, and in 2024, 40 million. In the US alone in mid-2024, there were 18.1 million digital nomads. In addition, for the number of solo travelers, one study suggests that there will be 81 million American solo travelers in 2025. In both of these groups, digital nomads and solo travelers, the trend is rising year by year. These groups especially benefit from Friendchise due to frequent location changes since Friendchise allows you to meet new people easily and spontaneously wherever you are.
Expats are one group that can especially benefit from Friendchise. Moving to a new country means building a social circle and a safety net from scratch. It’s difficult to find accurate data about the number of expats worldwide. There are said to be 272 million migrants, but that includes everyone, not only people who move for work.
Lastly, Friendchise is for everyone open to meeting new people. Maybe you have moved from one city to another and need new connections. Or your current group of friends is in different stages of life, and you would like to meet new people. Lastly, Friendchise can be useful for people on business trips looking to network with locals.
The needs we are addressing with Friendchise
1. Most of us don’t like eating alone. This is a constant topic of complaint, especially among digital nomads and solo travelers. People don’t want to reserve tables for one and feel awkward when eating alone.
2. In other applications, people are not serious. People are tired of endless chatting and trying to arrange a meetup. People want an easy way and a simple reason to meet others – and what is simpler than meeting for food or drinks?
3. The flexible option is missing. There are no food and drink apps currently where you can decide for yourself who you want to meet and where.
4. People want to meet in real life. Endless chatting, scrolling, and swiping are annoying if they only lead to digital connections. Especially if you are in a new place in need of company. The friendship app Friendchise is based on creating live meetups over food and drinks.
Why do we need Friendchise in addition to the other applications?
Several applications are for connecting people. However, most friendship apps only create digital connections: Meetup is meant for larger events on dates booked well in advance, and then there are apps for breakfast, lunch or even dinner, like Timeleft, where people meet for dinner every Wednesday. Despite all this, there seems to be no application that gives the user the freedom to decide where, when, and whom to meet.
Hanna, Friendchise’s founder, found it annoying that in other applications you can’t easily choose when and where you want to meet other people. What if you are not free on Wednesday nights? Or what if, due to work, you cannot meet for lunch or breakfast? There is a need for a flexible application where you can choose when and where you meet others.
There are hundreds of Facebook groups for solo travelers, digital nomads, expats and for finding travel companions. Yet, most of them fail to deliver what people are looking for: meaningful connections. Hanna has witnessed countless daily requests from various people to meet over lunch, dinner, or drinks, but rarely does a person get an answer in those groups.
The idea behind Friendchise was to create one space where people can make meaningful connections over food, drinks, or coffee. Meeting other people shouldn’t be as hard as it is nowadays with many different apps and groups. There should be one easy platform, and that is why Friendchise was created.
How is Friendchise different from other applications?
Spontaneous meetups: Friendchise allows you to be spontaneous and plan a meetup for the next day, or you can plan as far in the future as you want.
You choose when and where you want to meet: On Friendchise, you can create plans or join other people’s plans at the time and place that suits you.
Find like-minded people based on shared interests: You can filter plans based on similar interests, or you can check the profiles of the plans’ hosts to see if you have some things in common.
Meet safely in public spaces: The plans are meant to only happen in restaurants, bars, cafes or similar locations.
No excessive chatting: You sign up for a plan or create a plan where people can sign up. After your request to sign up has been approved, the chat will open among the people in the plan. Essentially, you will already have the plan booked before any chatting is allowed.
