Yoon Lee is a Senior at the University of Texas studying Management Information Systems. He has created an app specifically aimed at students looking to find interesting friends outside of their usual friend groups at college. The app specifically is geared at connecting with people at a level beyond superficial looks or stereotypes.<\/p>\n\n\n
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Yoon Lee is a Senior at the University of Texas studying Management Information Systems. He has created an app specifically aimed at students looking to find interesting friends outside of their usual friend groups at college. The app specifically is geared at connecting with people at a level beyond superficial looks or stereotypes.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Yoon Lee","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"yoon-lee","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2020-11-12 19:28:08","post_modified_gmt":"2020-11-12 19:28:08","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/podcasts.la.utexas.edu\/live\/?post_type=speaker&p=62","menu_order":0,"post_type":"speaker","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"Transcript":"
Welcome to Life Leadership, Innovation Ventures and Entrepreneurship. A podcast
\n\ue5d4
\nthat showcases the talents, skills and abilities of U.T. faculty, staff and students.
\nI’m your host, Brandon Jones, associate director for Student Learning and Development in Housing and Dining.
\nAnd we’re excited to have you listening to us today. We’re gonna be talking
\nto you, Lee, a senior m.i.a.’s major from Korea. And he’s going to be talking to us today
\nabout pop and application used to help students connect with each other. So the first
\nthing we want to know is just tell us a little bit about yourself before we start talking about the application. Perfect.
\nFirst of all, thank you so much for having me today. This is my this is a really big honor
\nfor me. My name’s you’lI. I’m a senior at my ass major. Currently,
\nI’m a CEO and founder of Pop. And Pop is a mobile application that facilitates
\nin-person meetup amongst a U.T. students based on interest
\nand personality matches. So when you talk about facilitating an in-person meetup,
\nthis isn’t a dating app, right? No, not at all. That’s that’s actually the misconception
\nthat people immediately hair when you meet up. But this is totally for friendship,
\nnot dating app. And we do that by removing picture,
\nvisual identity and also the names of it. So it’s it’s you. You
\nwill ha. It will be. We made it impatiently really hard to date on this platform.
\nCome back to that in just a second. So what what what facilitated or stimulated the idea
\nto create an application to facilitate meetups with students at u._t?
\nYeah. This this this might be a little bit of a longer story. Go for it. But it was
\nfreshman year, second semester. This person I met from orientation
\nwas sitting outside that Gestur room, just her dorm room. And I decided, go talk
\nto her. Catch up. And all of a sudden she started crying. She was bursting out
\nand she was telling me how she felt isolated and felt lonely on this big university
\nthat she wished she went to smaller university. She went to like she was she went to
\nschool. That’s closer to her home. Right. And that was a moment of
\nlike sort of, you know, realization. I wanted to do something about this problem.
\nAnd I think it was like junior year when I start noticing something
\ndifferent, the culture difference in UTI, that when I come in, when I go into
\na classroom, like nobody talks, like it’s it’s seriously nobody talks.
\nWhat we’re doing instead of talking. No, they they just you know, just they set up like laptops
\nand phones. They they pull out phones and they just looked through their Instagram, things like that. So
\nwe are digitally connected, yet we’re not really connected in person and
\nthe location where we need to like foster the positive relationship in campus.
\nAnd I thought I thought this was a real problem, that that I I
\nwanted to do something about it. So what was the next step for you once you realized there was
\na an issue with people connecting in person as opposed to just over an application?
\nLike what what what was the next step for you after that? Right. I think I think the first thing was that
\nI was I wanted to know if this is actually the problem for students. So we I conducted
\na lot of interviews, researches to figure out what the root cause, what’s what’s
\nwhat is causing all this problems, this connections, is that the first thing is
\nthat when you first come to this big university, you have only two to four weeks of that
\ngolden window, time to find friends like that perfect
\ncommunity that you will belonging after that. For weeks, the all the university mixers
\nare sort of ended out. And the universe like the organization, they’re already formulated
\ngrooves. They created their bubbles. It’s hard to penetrate. Now it’s it’s
\nhard to now make friends on campus. So you would just have to
\nmake a lot of effort to go into that sort of of making new friends. So you’re saying
\nit requires a lot more effort to make it into other social circles
\nthat that weren’t established in orientation or in
\nthose first couple of weeks of school? That is correct. So in higher education, there’s this there’s this theory that
\nwe abide by, not necessarily theory, but there’s studies that have shown that students
\nwho aren’t connected within the first three to six weeks of school
\nare more likely to not persist at that institution, meaning that they’re more likely to drop out or
\nthey’re more likely to want to transfer or start feeling those feelings of isolation and loneliness.
\nTalk to me a little bit more about. What you envision pop being able to do to help
\ndecrease those feelings of isolation or not being able to connect.
\nRight. So I think there was a two side up the story. Right. People that will drop out
\nafter that three to six weeks. And people that stay in university, but still going through that
\nhardship. Right. So the platform is essentially exists on
\non the mobile app, mobile world to create to help students
\nto create those sort of a relationship. Any time they want any time
\nof during the semester if they want to. So we are not limited to that three to six weeks a window time
\nto make friendship, but rather it’s going to give them like a whole year to really
\nfoster that relationship based on your interests, your personality that really fits into
\nsort of a your your your your personality. So what made you want to use an app
\ninstead of becoming an R.A. or creating a student organization
\nor working through existing mechanisms that are in place for students to connect?
\nWhat made you choose a digital application as opposed to any of those other means? Right.
\nSo all all of things like a LRAD and university mixers, they’re wonderful.
\nThey’re doing great jobs. However, still, there are a lot of gaps in between
\nthat’s that are not fulfilled. And and also it’s it’s there is
\nso much that one person can do while this. If we provide a sort of a platform
\nthat people can just create in the foster dis jinyan relationship, that could help more people.
\nAnd it’s good. It can scale a lot quickly, a lot faster. So that that wave
\nfor me, I can as a one person, I can make more impact on the community.
\nSo tell us a little bit more about Pop. So how did how did it all get started when she when she got the ball rolling,
\nknowing that you wanted to create an application to bring people together?
\nLike tell us. Tell us a little bit more about pop. Right. So so one thing that I mentioned
\na little bit earlier, but was about the not having visual identification and also
\nno names. And that really puts the pop into a very unique position,
\nnot one, but much about the romantic relationship, but more about the friendship. OK. Can I get along
\nwith this person? Can I be who who who I am as a person to be
\ntruly connecting with others? You know, besides the outlook’s and other out their extrinsic
\nfactors. Right. That was our goal. Make it make. Make friendship in a genuine
\nway. Can we do that? That was our challenge. And and then we did it. And then now
\nwe have 200 U.T. students currently using our platform. And
\nI personally have met three people through our platform. One more is scheduled on Friday.
\nBut it’s amazing. It’s it was we it also removes
\na sort of a stereotype. So, like, I thought this was a male. When I when I met up was
\nlike female. Whoa. It was a it was everything was imagination. So you were meeting. So people
\nare people sign into pop, but they sign up for pop. And they
\nit sounds to me and you can tell me if I’m right or wrong here. It sounds like they’re meeting up based
\non interests that they have in common as opposed to I look at this person’s
\npicture and I don’t like them. So I’m going to swipe left or swipe right or not meet with that
\nperson. Right. That’s what I do want to do that. What made you want to do? And you may have said this a little
\nbit, but just want to articulate further about why pursue just interests like what
\nwas the impetus behind just helping people to meet up based on interests? Right.
\nSo like you, you mentioned a great part of it, right? People on our
\nsocial norm is especially with those dating apps, are all focus on extrinsic
\nlike that, that picture. And it’s the biggest thing that you will see. Right. But as soon as you remove
\nit, we can actually focus more on their quality, their interest. And
\nthe reason why we focus on interest is not just like every like every bit of information,
\nbut the combination of that. Somebody is, you know, majoring in economics
\nbut interested in sketching an interest in skateboarding, interested in entrepreneurship.
\nThat is something very odd. But when I see those informations together, I really
\nwant to meet this person. I want to see like how this person has this diverse interest that doesn’t seem to
\ngo together yet, creates that sort of a harmony. And
\nand I think I think that’s where re-create values. Right.
\nSo we don’t we don’t immediately. We don’t we don’t this like we don’t judge
\npeople based on their outlook, but we’re really looking through that information and see like, oh,
\nI want to talk to this person. Can we get along well? Are we a what? We’ve
\ntalk like conversation, are we going to make when we meet up, that’s what’s important. So it doesn’t matter
\nthat we have different interests or similar interests. It’s more about.
\nAm I interested in meeting this part? Exactly. And those things just kind of help to highlight
\nwhether or not this so it’s interests based. So why the name pop? That’s
\nbecause that because that sounds very interesting for an application. So why the name pop? So
\nright. You you might be. So like I mentioned earlier and that that first
\ntwo to four weeks of window time, you create a bubble, you create people of
\na you want to have that belongings and so you create a bubble. But in sophomore year, junior
\nyear, you might want to expand. You might want to meet someone that can inspire you. You might want to meet
\nsomeone that’s have a different diverse background, but have a similar interest.
\nThat way you can learn from. So essentially, it’s a pop your bubble and meet your friends. I
\nsee. Right. Right. So the app is meant to pop the bubble and expand your horizons.
\nOK, so walk us through the experience. What’s it like to use the application? Like to tell us what
\nit’s like to use it? Right. So as a user, first thing you would do is like putting down your interests
\nas as unique as you want. You can add your own interests. You can choose from what was given
\non the platform. And also you will put in your major and hometown and gender
\nas well. However, that this for me, the gender wouldn’t be necessarily shown on the platform.
\nRight. So and then on the platform, you will be able to request to someone
\nthat you feel like you might want to make a conversation too. And once you
\nonce you make requests, they receive it, you will be invited into the chat room
\nand you will a father discuss where to meet or what to do and
\nwhat to eat and so on and so forth. So when someone so basically once two
\npeople have decided that they want to meet up. So let’s say I want to meet up with you.
\nWe decide we’re going to meet in just there out at the Spanish Oaks Terrace and I’ll be
\nin my U.T. shirt or whatever. What keeps the interest going
\nor what it what is the. Now that I’ve met up? What’s the what’s the. So what now?
\nTalk to me about that. So. So essentially this this is a platform that creates
\nthat first interaction. OK. Right. We’re really focused on that. And
\nfrom point then to to continuing the relationship and building off a bit, we’ll
\nbe probably up to then we won’t be like forcing them to make that connection. It’s completely
\nup to them. So if you thought that was a pleasant, you know, relationship and you were
\nyou’re both still a bailable during that time, then we might be able to notify you or remind you like,
\nwhy don’t you guys meet up again? But yet it’s it’s all going to be just more about like
\nyour your interaction and your decision on that particular interaction.
\nSo we’re in an age of security and safety.
\nAnd I know that that’s a big thing here on campus, especially working in housing and dining. Safety is
\none of the number one things our parents want to know that our residents are getting. Living in the residence
\nhalls. How do you emphasize slash and not
\nnot necessarily ensure, but how do you promote safety with this? Right. So first,
\nthat the first barrier to enter this application is that you have to have youth Texas,
\nthat e._d._u email address. So essentially, this is all for just U.T. students. OK.
\nAnd then now filter down to people can report on this user, malicious
\nuser or spamming users if they’re not doing anything properly.
\nThen they will report it. And another thing is the community guideline. So we
\nwill we will guide people to meet up at the on campus some summer. That’s a safe
\nas known as for for that from the university. So give me an example of a place that because that’s good
\nto hear about the digital security aspect that give me an example of a place that you
\nall suggest as good locations for people to meet up. There’s a biased reason I’m asking
\nthis question. I honestly think the
\nall the resident hall. Thank you very, very, you know, a good place to meet up
\nas well as all the dining halls from from U.T. Right. And Gis\u00e8le
\nunions and also like consulting. Those are all really good places to meet up. Right.
\nThere is a lot of places that people might not necessarily associate like meeting new people,
\nbut we could start that culture as well. What have you seen in terms of the low? Because
\nI know you said you have, what, 200 U.T. users right now. So has their bit. And I’m sure you’re collecting
\na lot of data with a lot of this stuff, too. So what have you seen as one of the more popular
\npop meetup stations or. And we’ll get. Whether you’ve named that or not yet, Riley.
\nWhat have you seen as the popular locations for for students? Right. I see union
\nis one of the popular location that people meet up and also
\nthe when they’re not necessarily meeting to eat, then they will also do a lot of FARC,
\nS.A.C. I’ve seen those those interactions a lot. And Starbucks as well.
\nIs there a plan or some thoughts around creating groups around this?
\nYes. So one thing that we are this is this not on the platform yet,
\nbut one thing that we are trying to do is making a
\ngroup meetup, but not necessarily group for anyone to intervene by it and then
\ndo it. But it’s rather it’s more about so Kurt creating sort of a virtual room
\nwhere the facilitator of the room can invite those people in that organization.
\nAnd with the one button, the people within the virtual one will be automatically
\nmatched based on the interest. And then y’all will be able to just talk to each
\nother in that room or in outside of the room. Right. So and then
\nI think Bakhit is easily expand to open invite to anyone in the community
\nbased on the like sort of interests, like anyone who’s interested in skateboarding can
\ncan come into this virtual me and can hang out as well. So how do you maintain the integrity
\nof the interest base that you built the platform on to?
\nAnd it’s very inclusive, I might add, by going on interest based. But
\nhow do you maintain the integrity of that? By making it a group where people who may
\nnot be interested in skateboarding but will still want to socialize with other
\npeople that are interested in that. So how do you maintain the the nature
\nof meeting up based on interests or things that might, could, could eventually
\nbecome an interest or something like that? I already have phrased that. Great. So so the thing is those
\nall those if we if we when we have those kind of virtual room, it will essentially
\ndisplay those those all the rooms that are bailable around your area that
\nis not private, but more of a public ones. And then you will be able to pick and choose which
\nones to joining. But absolutely, the virtual room that will show on the top of the list will
\nbe something that based on your interest, doesn’t mean it will exclude all the interest that you don’t
\nhave. Right. Good. So if I was
\na student and I wasn’t already signed up for pop,
\nwhy would I be interested in in. Well, what would you tell me about signing up for pop?
\nWow. Wow. Why? Why should I sign up? You know, like I mean, if you are a student that already
\nhas a lot of good friends, you know, and community around you. I mean, this
\nmay not necessarily be easy for you. It doesn’t have to be. But if you are
\na meif you have a good friends around you. But there may be like, say, Major
\nand want to maybe expand to meet like someone different. Like like I I’m I’m a business major.
\nI wanted to meet people in the like fine arts, arts and entertaining
\nlike those majors. And then now I actually did. There are applications. So if you
\nwant to meet people that are not in your major and expand that bubble, then
\nthat’s great product for you. Right? And I like that. One of the things that I really and one of the reasons I reached
\nout to you after they did the daily Texan article on you last year. One of the reasons I reached out was because
\nI was fascinated in the the community engagement piece of this. In housing
\nand dining, we have three learning goals self-management, community engagement and intercultural
\ncompetency. And so for me, with the community engagement learning go, we want
\nto make we want our students identified within some form of a community and it’s how they choose
\nto define it. And one of the things that being a millennial, I know they’re
\nbeing digital and being attached to a phone or a device. You know, I came up during the chatroom
\nera. Yeah. And all of that stuff. And so I remember what that was like having a group of friends that live nowhere
\nnear my rural East Texas upbringing. But having friends in California were in Philadelphia that
\nI would chat with. But also the rise of like iGaming in all these other different things.
\nAnd so that’s one of things that really drew me to the story of this particular application. And so
\nfor me, I’ve been fascinated and just really enjoyed watching how this application has grown
\nover the past year and seeing where you all came from. You know, before you even had a banner and
\njust getting a logo out of different things. So yeah, whereas pop hitting or pop heading.
\nRight. Right. You know, first of all, like, I’ve really want to establish
\nits presence and really help out those students
\nand university on UTF. First. Right. And once we do that,
\nwe are going to be moving into more of the other universities in U.S.
\nAnd also, once we sort of established our presence in education
\nand institution like this industry, they will then move on to more of a new hires
\nat new cities like the army’s in a different cities because they also
\ngoing through the similar problems. That can be addressed. Sure. So I’ve asked you
\nthis question before, and this is definitely something that I’m interested in. Like
\nevery you know, every application has a name or a type of nickname
\nfor their users. You know, Instagram, you got your content creators or YouTube,
\nyou’ve got YouTubers. What do you call him? Pop you? Yeah.
\nSo this this may sound as basic as if you meet people. People
\nwho’s listening to this might already figured that out. But, you know,
\npeople that are using pop are very open minded and adventurous.
\nYou know, they want to they want to do something new. They want to be inspired. So we want to
\ncall them Popper Poppers,
\nAsselin and Ratto to stay away from the
\noldies messages. That’s that’s really good. Another thing I’m just I mean,
\njust seeing how being here in Austin, you know, there’s always these tech meetups. There’s
\nall these startup meet ups and startup connections in South by Southwest
\nAsia, all these different things. Is there ever going to be a pop users
\nconference or symposium where meet up to kind of talk about the updates to
\nthe app or this meetup sponsored by the company to get
\neverybody together? Do you ever envision doing something like that? Well, that will be awesome.
\nAnd I would love to do that. I think I think for us, what we’re going to do is
\nmore about like a pop up party. Starting next semester, we’re going to be you are not calling it a pop
\nor party or pop up party
\non Iran, you know, campuses next semester. And also
\nalso threw out like as as soon as we have more people that are excited about the products
\nand expand our ideas, then we will have more of those
\nsymposiums and also those sponsored events. Absolutely. Yes. What’s the goal that you’re
\ntrying to reach for users? Because I know you said got just the right at about 200 here, U-T. What
\nis your goal? The goal is by next semester. We want to have
\nday we will we will expand to like other university. The end
\nof next year, we want to have 20000 user from all different universities.
\nWell, the good news is that here at UC, you got well over 51000 students in the residence
\nhalls alone. You get just over 7300 is not to mention over at
\ntwenty four hundred new ACIS that we own now and at the Colorado and Breckenridge Apartments,
\nwhich has a lot of international students that live there that are probably looking for this kind of connection
\nas well. So statistically speaking, you might be able to if you as you continue to cast your
\nnet, get more students. What are some ways that people can
\nget in contact with you or learn more about the app or just download the app in general? What can they find,
\nPop? Right. So I think the first point of contact will be
\nthe Facebook page that we have created in his call. It’s called Pop,
\nright? It’s called pop. And also another is the our Web site, which
\nis a pop mobile, that app. And you can find us both. Both
\nyou can download our application through there. And because this is all on
\nbeta version of both in Iaw and Android, we you have to have a link
\nto download the application so you find you will be able to find that app on our Facebook page,
\npop and also pop mobile, that app. But
\nwhat was the other question just in terms of how can they get in contact with you?
\nThey wanted to learn more about you or if some investor or a big donor is out there,
\nyou don’t listen to this. How can I can I get in contact with you? Was the best way. So
\nbest way is the email? That’s right. So it’s y o n
\ns l e add u Texas dot e._d._u. So that’s that will be
\nsort of the best way for. Get in touch with the get with me and anyone
\nwill is welcome like any like feedback on our platform to end your. And you’ll be interested.
\nAnd comes to like invest anyth, anything is a welcoming, I would love to speak with you.
\nSo, yeah. And then I guess that one of the last things is just that kind
\nof final push there for anybody who may be on the fence about downloading the app or
\nthinking about it. What would be that push for you, for that person that’s thinking about
\nutilizing this app to connect? What would you tell them? Right. So I really want to tell you that
\nthis is like the easiest way to meet your friends. Then this entire app was
\ncreated for your easiness, for your benefits.
\nSo so, you know, it’s this is this is not like something
\nyou have to put a lot of effort into to to meet new friends. But this is
\nsomething that you can make minor effort to really get
\nout the most that that you need. Also, because
\nthis is for you. I want to I really want to hear your thoughts.
\nI want to hear your ideas. Anything that you want to see on this platform. Let
\nme know. We want to make it better for you. So that will be my last
\npush. And yeah. Hey, pop your bubble and beat your friends. I want to see you there.
\nAwesome. All right. Thank you very much.
\nWe hope you enjoy today’s episode to catch the next installment. Be sure to follow us on
\nSpotify, Apple podcasts, Google podcasts and Stitcher. This
\npodcast was recorded and edited in collaboration with the L.A. i.g.’s Development Studios
\nAudio Department. More information can be found at Liberal Arts at you. Texas Tech. e._d._u.
\nSlash L.A. i_d_s. The intro song was composed by Ian Herrera and you can
\nfind his work at \u00c6on Herrera dot com. The outro song was composed by Noah Keller
\nand you can find more of his work at Noah D. Keller. RT.com.
\nWe’ll see you next time.<\/p>\n"},"episode_featured_image":false,"episode_player_image":"https:\/\/podcasts.la.utexas.edu\/live\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2022\/03\/LIVE-logo-TPN.png","download_link":"https:\/\/podcasts.la.utexas.edu\/live\/podcast-download\/5\/episode-1-yoon-lee-co-founder-of-the-pop-app.mp3","player_link":"https:\/\/podcasts.la.utexas.edu\/live\/podcast-player\/5\/episode-1-yoon-lee-co-founder-of-the-pop-app.mp3","audio_player":"