Finding your social niche outside the party scene when you move to a new city can be difficult for anyone, but now there’s an app for that.
Faced with that dilemma after moving to New York in 2007, Genese Jamilah found it difficult to find out where young black professionals (people like her) were hanging out outside of the club scene.
“It was really kind of depressing, like I can’t believe I don’t know where all the black people hang out,” Jamilah, explained. “In Georgia or Atlanta, you kind of know where everyone is, and most of the people I am around are black people that are professionals.”
After a few years, Jamilah got the hang of it, and in 2011 after reading a book about blogging one weekend she was inspired to launch the site: “I Don’t Do Clubs.”
“Clubs are hot, people step on your feet and spill overpriced drinks on your clothes (or on your head, if you’re short like me). And let’s not forget the random men grabbing your a** as you and your friends hold hands just to make it to the restroom. Nope, I’m good!” Jamilah wrote on her website.
Now, Jamilah is taking it to the next level, meeting her target market where they are — on their phones. After a couple of years of research and development, and a crowdfunding campaign on GoFundMe, the “I Don’t Do Clubs” app officially launched this week.
Available on both iPhone and Android, the app lets users access events segmented by city, view full event details and even submit an event. Event details will sometime include unique descriptions like “Future Husband Potential Ring Rating” for events that range from after-work mixers to brunches and day parties.
“I think the app helps if you’re already out in the city and you can’t log onto the website, or you can’t get the calendar to pull up on your phone just right. You can scroll through the events really simply on the app,” she said.
The app is geared towards young black professionals who live in major cities. As of this week, Jamilah has the following cities included on her site and on the app: New York City, Washington D.C., Boston, Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Houston, London, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia.
In the coming weeks, Jamilah is working to put out a “Summer Guide” for NYC, DC, and Boston.
“I’m trying to decide how I want to market that. If I want to just do it on the app, or if I want to put it on the website again. But that did really great numbers for us so I think that, that’s the biggest thing, to try to figure that out, and get it out in the next month…” she told us.
Rhonesha Byng is the founder of Her Agenda, “an information and inspiration hub for millennial women.” You can follow her on twitter @NeshasAgenda.
