News

A new social networking iPhone app made for Scarfies has been launched across Dunedin. The app, called KEEN, is the brainchild of Auckland University student Philip Chen, who was later joined by Canterbury student Nelson Shaw and Otago student Laxman Popli. KEEN is based around a simple premise: if you’re wanting to do an activity but lack the mates, a simple hash-tagged post on KEEN allows others to join this activity with you. The activity could range anywhere from playing a game of touch, or building a sandcastle, or even to just some beers in the sun.

The inspiration for KEEN began with a girl – specifically, as the answer to the age-old question, “How do I ask her out?”

“It was one of those times when you meet someone and some kind of lightning strikes,” Chen states. “I wanted to see her again. [But] asking a girl to ‘hang out’ can be pretty awkward when there’s no context, [it would] be much easier if there’s a way to start with something of a mutual interest.”

KEEN has gone from strength to strength. “KEEN is an app that’s all about spontaneous social experiences,” comments Popli, fellow Scarfie and marketing manager of KEEN. Popli explained that the University of Otago was chosen as the home ground of the app, due to the “free-spirited” and ”open-minded” nature of the students. “We’d like KEEN to be a way to help bring a little more of the [Otago] scene and culture to the rest of NZ, and maybe the world.” He added that KEEN would ideally sit alongside Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram and would help “enrich people’s lives through spontaneous social interaction.”

Keen was launched exclusively to University of Otago students in summer school this year, but Popli expresses the desire to expand to other universities around the country, and eventually break into the U.S market. The app was conceived under Lightning Lab, a business accelerator programme at Victoria University, and has attracted international attention from investors. At the beginning of January, the developers met with United States’ start-up AngelPad, founded by ex-Google employees. While KEEN was unsuccessful, they were incredibly happy to make it to the top 50 of over 2000 applicants, and were invited to apply again in the next round.

The app is free to iPhone and Android users, and has already attracted upwards of 130 users.