With in-person events being limited and a widespread shift to remote learning, students are facing unique challenges in both their academic and social lives. That’s why a group of McGill University students decided to create StudyDate, an app where people can match with those who have similar coursework or academic goals to make friends or, if they want, potential dates. We chatted with co-founder Sanghoo Oh about the app’s closed beta and plans to launch in colleges across North America.
Tell us about your app and what it does.
In essence, StudyDate is a matchmaking platform for learners to connect with each other based on academic goals or requirements. The recent pandemic that deterred students’ networking opportunities as well as existing loopholes in traditional dating/matchmaking services made us think about a solution to help young adults engage intimately in the most organic way possible.
As an undergraduate student, I noticed that schoolwork could be leveraged as a natural icebreaker and medium for collaborative activity. Thus, StudyDate was born. Users can find peers on campus as mutual friends or even dates while reaching objectives together—a productive way to relationship that is the strength of our initiative.
How does your app work?
The highlight of our app is the directory of students which a user can browse through to find their best match. All users are registered with verified school email addresses for safety, and their profile cards present information such as profile images, spoken languages, tasks to work on together, as well as favorite libraries and campus eateries. Users can send either a study mate request, or a study date request, depending on how close they want to get.
The service is additionally equipped with a messaging system, online study rooms, and a board to share upcoming study sessions.
Tell us a little about your background and how you discovered no-code tools like Bubble.
I am currently a senior university student in Canada. I am a UX designer by trade, but I always wanted to do more than creating prototypes. I wanted to build a product myself, but traditional coding felt too slow and inefficient. While looking for a better way to fulfill my aspiration, I learned that Bubble was the recognized industry-leading solution and joined Jon Melo’s bootcamp to learn the tool in depth. His lessons were highly relevant, and in just two months since, I was able to complete a high-quality first iteration of the product. My friends who helped me with QA and security testing eventually joined as co-founders. We are now working as a team to advance into the second stage of product development.
Why did you build your app on Bubble?
Bubble stood out to me as the industry leader in no-code development tools by number of users and reputation. The fact that it had a large supportive community, tangible tutorial series, and robust Bootcamp/teaching programs was another huge plus. It significantly lowered the learning curve for me relative to competing options. Considering my profession, the new Responsive Engine further improved my satisfaction as it allowed me to make no sacrifice regarding visual design either.
What have been your milestones or successes so far?
We started a semi-closed beta exclusive to our school just over four weeks ago and observed considerable interest and traffic on campus. We were featured in the school’s official student newspaper and received early attention from a couple respectable VCs.
What are your future plans for your app?
We are now updating the service with improvements and additional features. We will also be working to help students connect with peer mentors through our service. We look forward to our launch across all colleges across North America by the upcoming fall semester.
Learn more about StudyDate: Email
About Bubble
Bubble is a leader in the no-code movement. Bubble offers a powerful point-and-click web editor and cloud hosting platform that allows users to build fully customizable web applications and workflows, ranging from simple prototypes to complex marketplaces, SaaS products, and more. Over 500,000 users are currently building and launching businesses on Bubble – many have gone on to participate in top accelerator programs, such as Y Combinator, and even raise $365M in venture funding. Bubble is more than just a product. We are a strong community of builders and entrepreneurs that are united by the belief that everyone should be able to create technology.