A few weeks ago, five DU students and one student from the New Mexico Military Institute launched an app they hope will change the way people think about night life.
NightFlyer is an app that brings users all the information they need to know about events happening on any day or night of the week.
For this reason, according to their Facebook page, the team chose the all-knowing owl as their mascot. NightFlyer was proposed by Brandon Bourn as an antidote for people bored of going to the same bars, clubs or restaurants.
“Bourn, NightFlyer’s founder [and president, who studies engineering at the New Mexico Military Institute] originally came up with the conception of the idea for a “What’s-Up?” App that had a list of all the best things to do anytime,” said Head of Sales DU junior economics major Amir Alsayegh. “He came up with the idea for a mobile app about a year ago and worked with [Vice President and psychology major] Jack Wangelin in getting the foundations and some precursor versions up and running, a few months later he brought another friend Joey Leon [‘12 grad from Minnesota and Head of Finance] to handle the financial aspects of the project.”
Six months later, Bourn met Alsayegh, HRTM major Alex Clever and business student Quinn Foster. Bored of the same bars, clubs and restaurants, the six-man team decided to pour their passion into a personal project aimed at solving this dilemma.
“We all were very passionate about making something that broke the mold of the 9-5 desk job and the Friday-Saturday weekend of hanging out with the same friends doing the same thing,” said Alsayegh. “Thankfully we found a way to break the mold of both by creating NightFlyer.”
NightFlyer promises to broaden one’s horizons by introducing users to local venues and attractions in the area they may have been previously unaware of, so they’ll never have to miss out on exciting opportunities for socializing.
“When you’re planning to go out these days, nothing really comes to mind. It’s a lot of work trying to figure out where to go; you have to check Facebook pages, check out websites, go to the events and feel around. There’s nothing convenient about going out anymore,” said Alsayegh.
NightFlyer’s core goal is to maximize fun time and minimize the decision-making process, directly connecting people to events via the mobile app and website.
The app gathers a smorgasbord of events organized into five different categories: Happy Hours or events that revolve around food/drink specials, Recurring Events or events that occur weekly such as Ladies Night or College Night, Special Events which include Holiday parties, Giveaways, Live Music Performances, All-Day Events or food/drink specials active from open til close and Game-Day Events—whether in support of collegiate or professional teams, people can gather at the best venue to watch the game.
Similar to MileHighMenus, in which businesses are asked to sign up with the app in order to offer a collective buffet of options, NightFlyer solicits the participation of event makers or venue managers in the Denver community, gathering a reservoir of nightlife options in one highly convenient entertainment menu.
The app includes several navigation tools to facilitate access and search, including a filter feature and a map feature with colored pins to indicate current and upcoming events. Currently focusing on the DU area, Alsayegh and the team hope to expand to other Colorado schools.
“Our app is open in a few preliminary locations, CU Boulder, CC, CSU, and of course DU, but we’re expanding as quickly as we can,” said Alsayegh.
Hosting events to promote the app, Nightflyer held a Pub Crawl last week wherein users went from bar to bar using the app and testing out its features. The group will be holding a scavenger hunt and party Thursday to advertise further.
The app is now available for iPhones at the App Store and for Androids on GooglePlay; readers can go onto their Facebook page and scan the QR codes to download the app.
The group hopes that users won’t have to miss out on the best events or settle for going to the same bars anymore.
“It’s more than just a cool idea to us, we want it to change how we think of our social lives, we want it to make going out and having a good time convenient and easy,” said Alsayegh.
“It’s your night, it’s your life, simplified. Night Flyer—Nightlife simplified,” said Alsayegh.
