No Invite Link Required

I was catching up with a friend who moved from Texas to San Francisco. When I told her about Homie Haven, she mentioned she's in a WeChat group with the other Chinese people in her apartment building. It makes sense -  It’s organic for Chinese people in America to connect with each other on WeChat, but that leaves the question - what does everyone else do?

Every building or community seems to have their own group chats forming organically over Instagram, WhatsApp, GroupMe, or plain old group texts. The catch is that someone has to invite you in. And sometimes you don't know anyone.

That's the gap Homie Haven is built to close. It's one app that any resident can download, with no invite from a friend required. 

Will people actually download a new app just to meet their neighbors? The proof of concept suggests yes. More than half of the users in the Vox Discord (our Proof of Concept) were new to Discord. Discord shows both the day you joined the platform and the day you joined a server, and for so many members those were the same day. They didn't download Discord until that community gave them a reason to. 

The difference between the Vox Discord and Homie Haven is that new users still need an invite link from someone for the Discord. Homie Haven doesn't, because access is based on where you live.

If you live in a building and want to help it get started, share a flyer in an elevator or common space. Someone down the hall might be waiting for a reason to download it.