Heard

Idea

Introduction

Most social networks are designed to connect you with the people you already know, but what about the people you could know?

Heard shows you what's going on around you, wherever you are. Everyone you interact with is nearby - a possible real-life connection. From reconnecting with old friends, to meeting new people that share your passions or discovering a new area, Heard is about people, not followers.

You can see who else is the in the area, and your friends list shows you which of your friends are nearby - no more missed connections. Create new friendships and find people in your area that share your passions.

Messages on Heard only last a few days before they disappear. It keeps things simple, relevant and focused. Talk, make plans and meet up, just like real life. Not everything you do needs to stay online forever.

Privacy and safety are at the heart of everything we do. Only people on your friends list can send you a private message, so you control exactly who can contact you.

Intended impact

We want Heard to be the way people make new connections, share experiences, create communities and enhance social experiences.

We believe current social media is broken. Real-life relationships are being forsaken for chasing followers, likes & retweets. It's affecting peoples mental health, attempting to live up to impossible standards. Loneliness & isolation are on the rise too. We want to change the way people interact online. Your online life should be used to enhance existing relationships, not replace them.

Despite the fact that social media is a massive part of our lives, in our experience there's still no easy way to go somewhere, like a festival, and connect with people online, share your experiences, and make new relationships.

• Get recommendations for new music at a festival

• See if any of your friends are nearby

• Stay up to date with what's happening in your area

• Create communities and friendships with people in your area

Substantial accomplishments to date

• We've had over 11,000 downloads across iOS and Android

• We worked with The Charlatans on their North by Northwich festival, using the app to organise events across the town. It was a multi-day urban festival, so we used Heard to let everyone know what was going on around Northwich all week

• Heard was accepted onto the Natwest business accelerator

• We were finalists in the Great Britsh Entrepeneur awards 2019

• We launched Mercury Climbing, our first multi-day music and arts festival, which was used to promote the app and show its potential. Mercury Climbing is provisionally arranged towards the end of 2020, with an expanded festival and outdoor arenas set for 2021.

Monetisation strategy

We will have two revenue streams, one of which is also one of our biggest USPs

Differential privacy in advertising; keeping your private data private

We will show ads based on messages in the public timeline, not your private data. So for example, someone posts asking for a recommendation on which local restaurants are the best, and which are doing deliveries. We'll use that information to show ads targeted around restaurants and delivery services in the area. User privacy is protected, and their data is never sold or shared with third party advertisers, and never will be.

Enhanced Moments

Moments are free to set up, and will sit in the main timeline, but companies will pay for an Enhanced Moment. An Enhanced Moment will give you all the benefits of your own app such as branding, real-time monitoring, push notifications and more - at the fraction of the cost. We plan for set up will typically take less than a day, not weeks or even months like creating your own app often can.

Use of proceeds

We already have our SEIS approval, with £120,000 of our allocation left.

With Stewart Hamilton-Arrandale onboard as Technical Director all future app development will be handled in-house, with monthly updates and new features planned.

The majority of the money will be used to promote the app, and help us to reach a wider audience. We want to increase our awareness across existing social media to drive downloads.

We are engaging respected social media agency Social Republic to handle a new social campaign, increase our social media awareness and expand our presence across other channels.

We will also retain a PR agency to promote us to raise our profile in our key areas such as the music industry and students.

Since the outbreak of Covid-19 we have seen more people use Heard in their local surroundings, and usage has gone up. This is where we will focus our advertising for the next few months, and we have been sending in-app messages encouraging users to use Heard to see what’s happening in their neighbourhoods. After that we will focus our attention on students returning to University in September - helping them to get the most out of their new surroundings and helping them to stay safe.