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Moving to a new city is daunting, even without factoring in how hard it can be to meet people once you’re settled. Finding people with a common interest who want to get out and do something is difficult, and current sites can be expensive. Recently launched social networking site TwoNoo has a simple mission to solve all those problems: Meet people, do stuff.
CEO and founder Steve Keefe had recently moved to Denver for a job and didn’t know many people in the area. He began to consult sites like MeetUp.com to find activities and people with common interests, but it just wasn’t what he was looking for.
“I couldn’t find anything that would let me easily connect with people one-on-one or in small groups with common interests to go out and do stuff,” Keefe said. “There are a lot of sites out there when it comes to dating, but when it comes to doing things like just going to a movie, there wasn’t anything out there.”
He began working on TwoNoo to fill this void and the product officially launched in October in Denver as well as in Pittsburgh. Both cities boast a strong outdoor enthusiast community as well as a welcoming and booming startup community.
“It’s difficult to find friends with common interests and that’s without factoring in busy schedules,“ said Steve Keefe, co-founder of TwoNoo. “The site is designed to connect like-minded people, centered around the lifestyle/community ties they enjoy the most. It’s the perfect place to find a mountain biking, fly fishing, Scrabble playing, craft beer tasting, volunteering or business networking buddy.”
TwoNoo is built on a “freemium-type” model — users can connect with others and join an activity for free on the site, but must pay to post activities of their own. Most activities won’t cost more than $1 to post, and you can earn free credits by getting friends to sign up. Non-profits are always able to use the site completely free.
While Keefe's primary background is in software and product development and design, this isn’t his first venture as an entrepreneur. He co-founded GoKickball.com, a kickball league that’s now in over 40 cities and is focused on social networking and of course, having fun playing kickball.
Keefe truly believes having fun is one of the most important goals for TwoNoo currently, in addition to building up a base of users who are engaged and getting value out of site.
“Our focus really is getting people on the site and having a good time,” Keefe said.
TwoNoo is currently working out of Cherry Creek’s Thrive with two other team members. They hope to expand to Atlanta, Boston and the entire state of Colorado within the next year.
