When entering any new environment, it's often easy to meet people but harder to stay in touch with. This was the case for Matthew Travis, former King’s College student and founder of WutUp, a platform to access social experiences without the fear of missing out (FOMO).
WutUp is a hang-out application where students can discover and organize fun activities in one central platform. With WutUp, students can scroll through a chronological feed to engage with posts (by reacting and commenting) and indicating their interest in attending an event. Organizing an event is a smooth user experience, with students having to create a post with the location, time, and activity description for others to engage with. By having one platform designated for organizing hangouts, students have better access to finding new opportunities to connect with peers.
WutUp not only benefits students looking to enhance their social experiences but can positively impact local recreational businesses that want to promote their services. Businesses can open their own accounts to advertise their services directly to their target market. By allowing businesses to promote their events, activities, offers, and locations directly to their target market, WutUp users can get added value to their experience when looking for new things to do!
Natural Entrepreneur
Being an entrepreneur for Travis has always been second nature, starting from his childhood to his education at King’s College in Management and Organizational Studies. At the tender age of eight, Travis jumped into the cookie business. Just like many children, Travis loved to bake and sell cookies in the community.
What set him apart was his knowledge of consumer behaviour.
Grabbing his wagon full of cookies and pulling it to a nearby recreation center, Travis found a gold mine with a willing audience of active and hungry kids.
That ability for understanding consumers continues to play a role in his journey with WutUp.
Inspiration behind WutUp
The idea for WutUp blossomed while Travis was in high school. Coming from a small town in Southern Ontario, Travis moved to Toronto where he was exposed to a new environment, culture, and network. It was during this transition that he realized the difficulty of staying in touch with friends outside of school. He often found himself missing out on events or hangouts, simply because he wasn’t aware of them; not to mention, organizing events became harder as his circle grew.
Travis noticed that there was no social platform for young adults to learn about upcoming events or social activities. When allowed to draft up a potential business idea for his high school business class, Travis did not have any hesitation in creating a solution to FOMO (Fear of Missing Out).
Upon presenting WutUp to his classmates, he received overwhelming support from peers who related to Travis’ struggles as the new kid. It was at this time that Travis decided to commit to his app idea and develop the product.
Arriving at King’s University College, he found that many first-year students faced a similar issue when they would meet new peers and friends at orientation events but lose touch soon after.
I had my residence, and knew everyone on my floor, but I never knew if they were gonna go do something fun because I couldn’t message that many people.
He also got to witness this directly through volunteering as a Soph and flag football coach, where he supported students during their transition to university. These activities were one of his favourite memories as a student, as he was able to directly impact the experience of first-year students.
His idea grew stronger when attending his business classes at King’s, where he was able to directly integrate his learnings towards his entrepreneurial venture.
I found myself in a lot of positions where I wasn't thinking ahead of what to do with the app in terms of finances or being able to read the economy. So I found that going to school, whatever I was learning, I was able to directly apply to my app. It enhanced my learning experience, being able to apply that knowledge right away.
At King's, Travis found multiple avenues to help develop WutUp, while absorbing and applying learnings from his marketing, finance, and business courses.
Throughout his entrepreneurial journey, Travis’ biggest takeaways include the importance of conducting in-depth market research. Being able to identify an issue, and if customers are willing to contribute to a solution, is a great indicator of a good business solution and one that Travis believes allowed his venture to take root and grow.
What’s Next
Travis hopes to continue developing WutUp to help facilitate larger group hangouts and build deeper communities among university students. He also aims to target university clubs and organizations that would benefit from a tool that allows them to strengthen their communities. Alongside this, he hopes to grow the business to support students on campuses across Canada and the United States of America.
Download WutUp on the Apple App Store or Google Play Store today, to discover activities and build relationships with new people! Check out https://www.wutupapp.com/ or @wutup.app on Instagram to learn more!