Josh Hollis was standing in a long line to get into a party at Harvard University when he heard an announcement that the party had reached capacity and was no longer allowing people to enter. Disappointed, Hollis, a sophomore in Boston University’s College of Arts and Sciences, thought there had to be a better way to save people the hassle of turning up to full parties.
This is where he was inspired to create Movez.
Movez is an app for planning social events that optimizes multiple social platforms to change the way people throw and attend parties. The app, launched on Jan. 18, was last updated in the App Store on Feb. 13.
“It’s a social event planning app, it encompasses social networking within an app while users try and find the best events or parties going on within their vicinity,” said Alyssa Espiritu, Movez’s public relations director.
Knowing that many of his peers share the experience of struggling to get into parties, Hollis created Movez to help people find parties and save them the grief of traveling to a party for no reason.
Founded by Hollis and Miroslav Kuťák, the app strives to consolidate the many apps that facilitate event planning and attending.
“As a party-goer, you’re depending primarily on three apps: on Uber, on iMessage and Eventbrite,” said Jordan Williams, the lead business and marketing strategist of Movez. “That’s where we got our three-prong approach from: traveling from Uber, social from iMessage and organization from Eventbrite.”
Users can download the app, and based on their location, find parties and events near them by either looking for pins on the map or scrolling through the “Open Events” feature on the app, said Williams, a freshman in BU’s College of General Studies.
“You can see what events are going on in your area within a certain radius,” said Espiritu, a sophomore in CGS.
Once users find a party, they are able to use various details to decide if the night is a good fit. For example, one can see who is registered to attend, the date of the party, what the cost is and even what the “guy to girl ratio” will be at the party. They can then register to attend the event and be put on a vetted list, according to the website.
Hosts can monitor their capacity and message everyone on their attendee list at the same time, making communication between the party-throwers and the party-goers fluid and simple, Williams said.
“The host has the option to put the address, sometimes people want to keep the party location private until the day of, or if they pre-approve a guest, then at that time the guest will be able to access the address,” he added.
Hosts can also set an entrance fee to their party or event and get paid right through the app with the secure Movez payment integration system or with Apple Pay, Williams said. Hosts can watch a live time feed of money coming in.
“I know that’s very important for event-throwers, to see how much money they’re making versus how much money they spent,” Williams said.
When a person pays for an event, they get a digital ticket in the form of a scannable QR code, which can be scanned upon entry by the host’s app, he said. When a party reaches the host’s designated occupancy, users are no longer allowed to register for the party anymore.
Movez has integrated with Uber so users can easily click on the address of their event within the Movez app and get a ride to the party, Williams said.
After the party, attendees can post and share photos from the event with their fellow attendees and stay connected once the party ends. Social media accounts can also be linked to a Movez account so users can share events with their friends and followers, according to their website.
“I really like the fact that you have to use a .edu email to sign up for the app and you also have to verify yourself on Facebook,” said Amanda Pelrine, a sophomore in CGS. “It makes parties seem less sketchy and more trustworthy.”
Currently, Movez has ambassadors hosting parties primarily in Boston, but also Atlanta, New York, Boulder and California, Williams said.
The app has approximately 600 downloads and has big plans for the future, Williams said. To this point, Movez was recently accepted into FbStart, Facebook’s global program to help entrepreneurs build their startups.
Williams said the Movez team hopes to eventually move away from the QR code scanning system and use geofencing technology instead, which automatically updates the attendee count and girl to guy ratio as people enter and exit the geofence of the party location.
“We want our growth to be steady,” Espiritu said. “That’s our goal, we want this app to be something people don’t just use for a season, we want them to continue to use it.”
