Start-up Spotmate: the first social medium that is actually social?

“Other social media are all about sharing your own super cool life,” says Jan Geleijnse (23), founder of Spotmate and Environmental Engineering student. “They are more egocentric than social. Spotmate is the first truly social medium because you fill the profile of your friends and they fill yours.” Photos posted on Spotmate get published directly to the profiles of the people ‘spotted’ in them and remain online for 12 hours. If a user likes a photo, they can ‘pin’ it to their profile. The photo will then remain online. “Our app is about showing real life, not a perfect picture,” comments Jop Kokkedee (23), Director of Spotmate and Sustainable Energy Technology student. By default, profiles on Spotmate are set to private. Geleijnse: “Only your ‘mates’ and followers, who you approve, can spot you in pictures and see the ones you’re spotted in.”

‘We need a massive number of users’

Eventually, the start-up will display advertising on their app. Kokkedee says that “We will make sure that people are only shown products that really match their interests. Not that you google something and the next thing you know is that it is on your feed. But before we can even have advertisements, we need a massive number of users.” As Spotmate revolves around photographing other people, the corona crisis is throwing a big dampener on the app’s growth. Geleijnse explains that “We currently have 400 users. Before corona we were seeing a steady growth line, now it is a bit stagnant.”

Also affected by the corona crisis is the Philips Innovation Award, in which Spotmate is taking part. Geleijnse and Kokkedee will find out this week if the team makes it to the finals. The semi-finals took place on 8 April through Zoom. “There I was,” says Geleijnse, “sitting in front of my bedroom wall wearing a suit with two big lights pointed at me, waiting for my turn to enter the meeting and pitch.” Although glad that the competition wasn’t cancelled, the students had been looking forward to actually attending the event. Kokkedee continues. “Usually, it draws over 800 people. We were going to promote the app by ‘spotting’ the other participants and investors.”

Although things haven’t gone exactly to plan for Spotmate, the students are using this time to further develop their platform. “We are looking for someone with marketing skills to join the team,” says Geleijnse. “If you have great ideas for our app, please get in touch at contact@spotmate.io.”

• Team: Jan Geleijnse (CEO and founder), Jop Kokkedee (Director), Adriaan van Wijk (Head of Design) and Coen van Gruijthuijsen (CTO).
• Invested: EUR 1,500.
• Target group: Anyone looking to have social interaction, but in particular Generation Z.
• In five years: Spotmate will have two billion users.
• Website: spotmate.io

Elise Mooijman / Freelance redacteur