I'm sure at least once you've heard someone complain there’s nothing to do in Cincinnati. We all know there is plenty to do but I think the problem is there are so many things to do that option paralysis ensues. First world problems right? I once read that the definition of a first world problem is a 20-year-old with cash on hand. Kind of funny, but first world problems are still problems. Enter Devoo. Devoo is an app that just launched out of the OCEAN Accelerator in Oakley. I had wanted to stop in and check out Ocean for a while so I met up with Alex Barok, a recent Miami University graduate and Devoo co-founder. Majoring in entrepreneurship at Miami was fortuitous for the Devoo cofounders as it led them to Tim Holcomb, a Miami professor and Ocean mentor. Tim helped them through the grant process at Ocean which Alex states was invaluable.
What is Devoo? I'll let Alex take over, "The idea behind Devoo is to connect people to their communities and events going on around Cincinnati.
The name comes from "rendezvous"...like Ren-Devoo"
Looking at Devoo, I wondered what it brought to the table that twitter, facebook and texting couldn't do. According to Alex, the last minute buying model is broken. Alex feels the way it works now is you buy a ticket then make plans. Everything is so last minute. Devoo wants to help people enjoy last minute plans instead of dreading them.
Back to my question of social media. Alex, "there is a lack of commitment with facebook, also you need to go to another app to purchase tickets." Devoo has ticket buying built right into their event listings. And once Devoo learns your likes, it will start sending push notifications. Say you're in a neighborhood for a movie, you might get a notification to stop at a bar for a drink afterwards.
Alex says currently no one is putting events in one location where people can act on it. Devoo is hooked into numerous places online. The strategy is to hook into bigger sites for events and to meet with the local organizations that are creating events. One advantage with Devoo over regular social media platforms is that your friends don't need to have the app installed for either of you to benefit. You create an event and push it out to them.
Devoo will debut at the Ocean Accelerator Demo Day this afternoon at 1pm. Demo Day is open to the public. In addition there will be investors looking for interesting new companies. What’s next? Planning stay in Cincinnati after the launch, Alex thinks the next step will be applying to the Brandery for additional mentorship and capital. He says,"The Brandery would take us from 3x to 10x growth". Devoo is scalable so once it gains traction in Cincinnati it can be launched in other cities.
The Devoo team consists of Jose Avila in charge of product and user experience, Sherman Adelson tackles the technology and Alex Barok doing the marketing and business development.
Right now it is IOS only so if you have an iPhone and want to try out Devoo, check out their
website. If you want to see them at Demo Day find details
HERE.
[where: 45202] best place to learn how to live downtown cincinnati ohio the ethos of Cincinnati
comments?
