Have you ever been out on the town and couldn’t find a good place to go? Nuvu Co-Founders Ryan Nuzum and Nick Simpson have developed a social media app that takes the time and guess work out of getting the most fun out of your evening.
“It’s a nightlife app that tells you all the exciting things that are happening at bars, night clubs and restaurants before you even get there,” says Nuvu Co-Founder Nick Simpson.
“Your night, your way” is that app’s promise to help users find a place to meet others with similar interests and profiles, says Simpson.
“You can login with Facebook or simply register your profile on the app,” says Co-Founder Ryan Nuzum.
The Internet-based app is free to users and the revenue stream will come from businesses that pay a subscriber fee to reach customers on their smartphones or other handheld devices.
“This is the essence of real-time target marketing because it reaches customers who are in the immediate area,” Simpson said.
These recent college grads say they plan to have the app on every smartphone in America.
Simpson and Nuzum said they were in Ocean City, Maryland one night in the summer of 2014 and wanted to know the best places to go—and that’s when they came up with the idea for an app to help businesses connect with customers in real-time.
Nuvu currently has a beta app with a restaurant in Washington, DC and “the results have far exceeded our expectations,” Simpson said.
Nuvu reaches users through Facebook or by simply registering your profile
The two credit much of their success to the programs and mentoring that comes with a membership at hotDesks.
“Affordable 24/7 access to modern office facilities in Easton and Salisbury has taken away the burden of maintaining an office,” Nuzum says.
“We’ve been able to keep our costs way down and focus on growing the business.”
“We’ve also been mentored by some very successful investors, entrepreneurs and business leaders who have proven success in bringing products and services to market,” Simpson says. “hotDesks and its partners have been invaluable to Nuvu.”
Simpson and Nuzum have won numerous business competitions to help fund the development of
Nuvu, including:
• 1st Place, Eastern Shore Business Competition, 2014
• 1st Place, Purdue School of Business Bernstein Entrepreneurship Completion, 2014
• Maryland Capital Enterprises People’s Choice Award for Most Investable Business, 2014
• InvestMaryland Finalist $10,000, 2015
• Award Philip E. & Carole R. Ratcliffe Foundation Shore Hatchery Competition $25,000,
“All told we’ve raised about $80,000 towards the development of Nuvu,” Simpson said.
The app was also showcased at the Collision Tech Conference in Las Vegas in May.
hotDesks Executive Director Mike Thielke said the facilities and programs offered at the Easton and Salisbury facilities are critical for supporting innovative startups in the Delmarva region.
“There must continue to be a place to tap emerging talent in our own backyard,” Thielke said. “We must help grow these new businesses with all the resources at our disposal, which means providing access to capital and expertise for new startups like Nuvu, and we have more innovators taking advantage of the coworking space.”
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