An inside look at launching an app in Charlotte
Who: Josh Lineberger worked in the service industry in Charlotte for eight years, and he had an idea. What if there was an app that could be used to bring groups of people together, in real life, to meet up at bars, restaurants and more around Charlotte. Lineberger founded Hopspot, a Charlotte-made social networking app whose goal is to do just that.
On this week’s CharlotteFive Podcast, we talked with Lineberger and Hopspot Director of Marketing Colby Almond about the app, why they wanted to launch it in Charlotte, what it’s like to build an app from nothing, and how they plan to quickly expand it to other areas.
What: The Hopspot app is a “social planning tool dedicated to get people out in the real world in real time, focused on social interaction face-to-face,” Lineberger said. Basically, it’s an app dedicated to helping you figure out what your friends are doing during a given day and possibly plan a meet up, like lunch, dinner or drinks. Think Facebook, but without the political rants or baby photos. It was created in Charlotte by Socialtopias and launched earlier this month. (Read more about the app in this CharlotteFive story about the launch.)
That’s what he said: “We love being in Charlotte. It’s a great market to birth an app in, and our headquarters is here and will always be here,” Lineberger said. “We’re always going to be a Charlotte company.”
The CharlotteFive Podcast — presented by The Charlotte Observer and powered by OrthoCarolina — is a weekly podcast that aims to get you CharlotteSmart, fast with fun, interesting and useful news about the city. It’s hosted by Corey Inscoe and Sarah Crosland.
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Photos: Richard M. Brooke
This story was originally published August 1, 2016 at 11:01 PM with the headline "An inside look at launching an app in Charlotte."