Rgroup offers new way to help scattered friends regroup

Keeping a group of friends together at music festivals, theme parks, or even at Art Hop in downtown Kalamazoo on a Friday night can be challenging.

If the venue is loud, like a music festival, friends may not hear their phones when a member of the party calls to try to find them. They also may not realize they are getting a text message if they are too engaged in what they are watching.

RGroup is a phone app that turns your phone into a device that seeks out your friends by locking on to their phones and providing an arrow on your phone screen showing which way you must go to find them.

Recent Western Michigan University MBA graduate Ryan McNally and John Fry, a current MBA student at WMU, described their project, RGroup at the Starting Gate Demo Day presentation of the app with the motto: "The simplest way back to your friends is in your pocket." Pawel Majkowski, a current MBA student answered questions about the company.

First users login to create a profile or sign in with a social network, such as Facebook. An invitation is sent to those who will be attending an event together. There is a specific time window when the phones can find one another so that your friends can't find you all the time.

Surveys the group have conducted show that 49 to 50 percent of those asked said they would pay for such an app and would use it on a regular basis. They also found that 62 percent of those questioned said they regularly attend events with three to five other people. "That's just about when a group becomes unmanageable," Majkowski said.

For those skeptical that people will pay for such an app even though they have said the would, the team also is investigating ways to sell ads to vendors at large events that would be seen by those using a free version of the app. Those who want to forego the ads could buy the app, which would not have advertising to paid users.

The team also is looking into collecting data on who is using the app, and where they are going, and selling it to vendors interested in tracking the physical flow of patrons at an event.

During the question and answer period the team was asked how it was dealing with the drain on the phone battery their app would create. They responded that they are aware of that potential problem and are looking at different solutions.

They also were asked to make sure any data they collect would be anonymous before they sold it. "Please don't sell my data," Eric Schmidt told the team. "That would be a dealbreaker for me."

RGroup members indicated demographic information would be the type they would collect and resell, not personal information.

Writer: Kathy Jennings, Second Wave Media
Source: WMU Starting Gate Demo Day