When Terence Simpson moved to Los Angeles from Long Island, New York three years ago, he knew no one. He assumed that with his personality he would figure out how to meet new people, but he was wrong. He even contemplated going back home his first couple of weeks in L.A. because of how lonely he felt.
Things slowly, but surely, started to improve for Simpson as he made friends through different third or community spaces. He noticed how others struggled to find their community of people and utilized his experience to create JoinLinks – “an app that helps people find fun things to do each week and meet cool people to do them with.”
Growing up as a middle child, Simpson was full of curiosity. He has always had an interest in business, whether it was trading stocks or building websites. He also had a passion for sports, having played tennis and basketball. His passion for basketball led him to The Hotchkiss School, and later, he attended Northeastern University.
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Now, years later, he is utilizing his love for business to run his own. His team consists of Matt Greene, who runs the coding side of things; Tamara Hendley, who is in charge of designing and finances; and Jocelyn Chambers, their marketer and community organizer. Together, they ensure the community has a platform to meet and network with people they normally wouldn’t on a daily basis.
JoinLinks has received great feedback in relation to how easy it is to use the app, and the excitement on knowing the happenings in L.A.
“…but also multiple people have come up to me to say that they found new friends through the app and have hung out multiple times since attending a LINK,” he added. “Which is a blessing and I’m really happy it’s helping others build community.”
Simpson originally wanted his app to be called “Links,” which to him means to “link up” with people but came to realize that name was too common and could potentially be difficult to find in an app store or online. Ultimately, Simpson and his team added the “Join” in the front of it, which made more sense for them because the goal was to get people to “join – links around the city.”
The thought of creating an app could be nerve wrecking for many. The questions, “Where do I begin?” Or “How will I pay for this?” may come to mind. Simpson described the process as something that “is not for the faint of heart.”
It took him and his team two years to get a working app, and after building a basic version of the app in a year, they realized that it was not usable and had to scrap it, starting over with a new code base. He revealed that they had to let go of those engineers and two of their marketers and designers from the founding team due to the delays, which he called “both frustrating and disheartening.” He added that everyone faced “a healthy dose of imposter syndrome.”
“Ultimately, it’s been a grind just to reach the point where people have a workable application to use. But that’s only the starting line, because what good is an app if no one uses it? Getting users to incorporate JoinLinks into their daily routines has been a challenging, yet rewarding experience,” he emphasized.
“Honestly, I could write a short story on the ups and downs of the process. But the ends truly do justify the means as we are now growing pretty fast.”.
His short-term goal for his app is to continue learning from his users and to solve what he calls the “pain point of loneliness.”
“In the mid to long term we would like to raise an angel or pre-seed funding round to help expand to other cities around the country including my home state NY,” he said.
Simpson wants people to know that JoinLinks is for the community.
“It’s designed to show you what to do each week and connect you with people to join you, so you never feel alone,” he ended.
“Additionally, it aims to create third spaces around the city where you can meet amazing people, build friendships, POTENTIALLY find love, and experience the joy of discovering new connections in the place you live.”
For more information on JoinLinks, visit: https://linktr.ee/joinlinksapp.
