Two North Shore teenagers, one from Great Neck, the other from Herricks, have teamed up to post a unique app on the Apple’s App Store and have high hopes for its future.
Eventible, conceived by Nick Parasram, who lives in Herricks and graduated from high school last June, and developed by Great Neck’s Daniel Hanover, who will graduate next month from Great Neck North, is described as “the first social network for events in your community empowering you and your friends to collaboratively create and discover events.”
“The genesis of the idea came from Nick,” said Daniel of the process that began in October 2013. “He realized that there was no central organized way for people to find events that were happening around them. He knew I was technically minded so he contacted me with the idea.”
“Back then,“ Hanover recalled, “It was really just an abstract conception. We spent a lot of time at the beginning just thinking about how this would work.”
“Basically what we built is what they call a hyperlocal network of events,” explained Parasram. “That’s the new terminology for something that’s mobile and social and local.”
“We’re doing well with both user downloads & retention,” he continued. ”The biggest metrics for apps are the number of app downloads and retention. Investors care mostly about how many people are downloading the app per day and how many users are actually returning every day to use the app.”
“We’ve simplified the process to make an event and share it with any social network (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.) that’s popular,” Parasram added. “Users can put events on (the app) themselves.
“A lot of people that we know have always struggled with ways to connect around events that you hear about by word of mouth. There’s never been something put out there for events so that people can find out about what to do, connect with other friends and join each other at events.”
Neither partner would reveal just how many users had downloaded the app since it first appeared in mid April, but Nick said, “We just passed a milestone that we’re pretty happy with. We think we’re on the right track.” Right now, only Apple users can access the program, but the app should be available shortly for Android users also.
While their initial investment of $500 and teamwork has taken them this far, their next step involves financing. “We’re ready to go out and seek funding,” said Parasram. “It’s really hard for me and Dan to keep pushing things with such a low budget. Facebook advertising costs a lot of money and paper advertising’s a lot of money.”
Both 18 year olds have been involved in the tech world for a long time. They met three years ago when they were working as summer interns at a tech startup.
Hanover was also part of a committee that worked to get the Great Neck schools to widen student access to the Internet, especially for older students. For a time, the level of Internet access was the same for high school students as it was for children in the kindergarten.
Parasram has spent the year after his graduation working in an apprentice program tech students and on the app. “I’m not sure yet,” he says when asked about future education plans. “Eventible is my main priority.”
“Our hope,” he continued, “is that we’re going to get financing for this venture and if we do get financing, which is our no. 1 goal right now, I’m not really sure what’s going to happen with my college plans.”
