Maybe you’re looking for a fun local event to do with friends, or maybe you feel like Facebook events are for teenagers. Enter Saambaa, an event-planning mobile app meant for groups of friends to organize and share events in their area.
The app, developed this year by entrepreneurs in San Diego, provides an easy way for friends to create a new event and invite others. Users pick a date and time for the occasion and then message each other from within the app. They can also invite friends who don’t already have Saambaa downloaded, send text messages from the app, or choose from a list of suggested events that already exist in their city.
The founders launched Saambaa after spending six months in the San Diego incubator EvoNexus, and are slowly working on building their user base and growing the app with existing angel funding. They hope to raise additional capital and release an updated version this fall, although the current version is already available for both iPhone and Android.
The app joins a crowded space for event-planning apps, but seems to strike a nice balance between providing a platform for event-hosting brands while creating a space for users to interact in a way that’s more functional than group text.
A bonus feature: Saambaa has partnered with the popular transportation app Uber, so San Diego customers of both services will get $ 30 in free Uber credits to attend a Saambaa event or anything else they want to travel to. Founder Matt Voigt said the two companies seem like natural partners, and their message to customers is, “Discover the party on Saambaa, and Uber your way there.” He said they’re focusing on San Diego at the moment, but hope to expand the partnership going forward.
