NEW BABBLE APP LAUNCHING IN EXETER
Devon entrepreneurs have launched a female only social networking app for local women to connect with each other. Following the apps values of Respect, Inspire, Support and Encourage; Babble App is already helping women from across Devon.
Co-founder Lana Dalby came up with the idea of Babble App last year whilst visiting St Albans. She was going on a night out with friends and wanted to get her make-up done. She popped into a few places which were fully booked and she was left feeling slightly anxious. She searched the web for alternatives but the information she found was outdated. Lana said;
“I would not feel confident asking a random person on the street, but I would ask a group of 10,000 women on social media.”
It occurred to her that she could not be the only women to feel this way and that there was a need for a real-time question and answer travelling app. She spoke to her co-founder Carly Britton and they agreed that this platform was needed, and they started to design and plan the app.
Lana Dalby a full-time student at the University of Plymouth and Carly Britton a full-time Technical Support Manager at Vualto decided that securing investment for the app would be the best route.
After reaching out to Raj Dhonota, (a contestant on the first series of The Apprentice) on Linkedin and then pitching over Skype they secured over £100,000 to have the apps built. A year on they have soft-launched in Plymouth and are due to release their second phase which they are launching in Exeter this month.
Lana and Carly have already had an incredible year. They were shortlisted for the FT2G intensive programme and they pitched to the FT2G partners. They became semi-finalists in the Virgin Voom competition where they secured a place in the top 40 out of 3,500 UK businesses. Most recently they won a place on ‘Pitch@Palace on Tour’ where they got to meet and pitch to Prince Andrew.
Since the app launched in April this year it is going from strength to strength with over 1000 users already. The idea of Babble App is to join your hometown community and then when traveling you can join the communities of other towns and cities. Once you are a member of these communities you will see a live feed of Babbles (posts and comments) from the users. The idea being that you can ask real-time questions to local women of those areas and receive a real time answer. No more out of date info from the web. Babble App is a unique concept but in high demand.
‘Babble App is a safe, friendly, non-judgemental environment. Users can sign up with just an email address. Providing their name or a photo is their choice but not a requirement. We want women to speak freely and honestly without worrying that they can be identified. We have steps in place to handle trolling but so far we have been fortunate enough to not have needed it’, says Carly.
Babble App is a female only social networking app but there are plans for a male version to be released soon. You can download Babble App today on iOS and Android. www.babbleapp.co.uk
