One of the most innovative and interesting ideas for an app I’ve seen recently, I’d like to introduce you, dear reader, to Pear. Just having made its debut on the App stores for both Android and iOS, Pear is best described as the anti-Tinder: a Tinder for matchmaking in the social era, where you swipe “yes” or “no” on hypothetical couples of your friends, and highly ranking couples are notified.
I had a chance to speak with Joshua Choi, the frontman and the originator of the idea, who explained the unmet need that Pear aims for. “The current state of how technology approaches relationships is pretty bad. I know a lot of people, myself included, who wouldn’t be caught dead using Tinder as anything more than a joke. Apps like Tinder may work for a lot of people, but I knew very quickly that there was an audience for something like Pear, an audience whose needs weren’t currently being met by existing products.”
Screenshots of the newly launched app, Pear.
The Pear team is comprised of all undergraduates from the University of Virginia:
Joshua Choi (Pre-Commerce & Computer Science 2017)
Alex Ramey (Computer Science 2017)
Will Schneider (Computer Science 2015)
The Pear Team. From left to right, Joshua Choi, Will Schneider, and Alex Ramey.
The three team members met mainly by chance, and soon became friends, according to Choi. “I met Will while we were both waiting for a bus to take us to HackNC. He was watching/playing Twitch Plays Pokemon and I started talking to him about what a cool experiment I thought that was. Alex was introduced to me by a close friend, and he soon started hanging out with our core group of guys. In neither case did I set out with a recruitment mindset. I guess the takeaway from that is to be open to opportunities, and in their absence, create them. It costs you nothing to go talk to somebody while you’re both waiting for a bus.”
Pear’s Seeds
Choi is an ideas guy, so “it was pretty straightforward for [him to start a startup].” Having a great idea, he delved deeper into it. Seeing a viable opportunity, he pursued it. “There’s a certain kind of pleasure in building something from the ground up, in watching others use what you’ve made.”
He thinks that of all his experiences so far to have prepared him for entrepreneurship, the best was writing fiction. “It trains you to come up with dozens of ideas, throw out the chaff, and see what sticks. It teaches you to treasure those ideas you can’t get out of your head, the ideas your friends can’t get out of their heads, the ideas that people invariably want to tell others. It’s true that execution trumps ideas, but having that killer idea makes it so much easier to want to execute well, and to recruit people to help you do so.”
Being an ideas guy, and he makes sure to write down all of his ideas, “no matter how inane.” The idea for Pear came from late night brainstorming. On the origin of the name, he says, “I came up with the name ‘Pear’ in a Red Bull fueled haze while we were rushing to code an MVP [Minimum Viable Product]…’We’ll call it Pear, but spelled like the fruit,’ and the name stuck.”
The process the team traveled to realize the idea is an interesting one: “We brainstormed different UI and mechanics versions for Pear separately– no one was allowed to see what anyone else had come up with until they had some ideas of their own in order to avoid echo chambers. Then, we worked in pairs (haha) to sort of cross breed ideas. Eventually, we ended up with the primary interface and mechanics that we have now.”
Since its inception, the core idea of Pear has largely remained the same. “People rate potential couples of their friends, all votes are stored, and high-ranking couples are notified.” They experimented with ancillary features as time went on, always listening to what their users preferred. “We thought about the moments in the app that made the user’s experience enjoyable, and focused on those.”
Success So Far
Looking back on their journey thus far, Choi believes that the awesome people on his team has been the main factor for their success so far. When he first had the idea, he was working on it solo. “I got lucky in how I met Will and Alex, thankfully, but finding good people is probably the single hardest challenge in any entrepreneurial endeavor. Most other problems can be either overcome or out-thought if you have the right people by your side.”
Secondly, he believes that the quality of the idea has been significant. “The idea itself is intuitively human. We’ve all seen matchmaking before, so Pear, the app, is instantly relatable. Pear, regardless of its technological platform, appeals to distinctly human elements: the altruistic desire to help friends, our fascination with how we are perceived, and a curiosity of plausible possibles. People know what it is right off the bat, and they’re amazed it doesn’t already exist.”
Despite having a great idea and a great team, they still had to overcome some technical setbacks. “For example, with the release of Swift for iOS 8 and the impending release of Android L, we had to make decisions about how to build our app and what it would look like without really being certain about the technical territory.”
It’s very evident in conversing with Choi that he is quite well-versed in the literature available on entrepreneurship. On that, he argues, “When it comes to these kind of things, there is no scripture. Take any entrepreneurial advice that claims to be universal with a grain of salt– including this. Don’t wear sweatpants because Zuckerberg wore sweatpants, don’t yell at people because Jobs yelled at people. Find your own reasons to do your own things– maybe those things will make you end up acting like someone successful, but don’t copy for copy’s sake. You keep your eyes to the ground when you walk in others’ footsteps. You can quote other entrepreneurs all you want, but in the foxhole, all you’re going to have is your own mind and anyone you’ve convinced to come along for the ride. So be smart and have smarter partners.”
but in the foxhole, all you’re going to have is your own mind and anyone you’ve convinced to come along for the ride. So be smart and have smarter partners.
Perspective on UVA Entrepreneurship
Though he is only a second year at the University of Virginia, Choi has some insightful perspective on the entrepreneurial scene here. Overall, “it’s improving, but it’s not where I’d like it to be right now.”
Echoing comments similar to fellow UVA alumnus Drunk Mode Founder Joshua Anton regarding the lack of a “Founder’s culture” here, Choi expressed that, “In my personal experience, it feels like there are a lot of students who want to attack every angle of the entrepreneurship equation except actually starting a company. They want to work for startups, advise startups, fund startups, talk about startups, and have a vague and hazy notion of hating the 9 to 5. But they don’t want to, you know, start a company. It’s like the Nietzsche quote in action: ‘Admiration for a quality or an art can be so strong that it deters us from striving to possess it.’ A lot of people can be really quick to dismiss themselves as founders, unfortunately. The sad thing is that this belief can be symptomatic of an attitude that is an actual liability in an entrepreneur.”
This lack of a “Founder’s culture” in the student scene here at UVA means that Choi hasn’t really been connected with other students actually doing entrepreneurial endeavors. “You hear things through the grapevine and meet them occasionally, but I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting [other founders] on a consistent basis.” Despite that, he firmly believes that “there are definitely some cool entrepreneurial things going on at grounds.”
Having just placed in the Finals of the 2014 UVA Entrepreneurship Cup with Pear, Choi has already taken advantage of many resources available to student entrepreneurs. To improve their concept pitch after being chosen to present, the team was mentored by Elizabeth Pyle and Andrew Hartford, the organizers of the Technology, Media, and Telecommunications track of the UVA Entrepreneurship Cup competition. “Competitions are good for raising some money/awareness and getting feedback, and if you’re in a highly technical field, I imagine that certain professors could be extremely helpful.” While he hasn’t had much connection with the slightly disconnected alumni entrepreneurial network, he believes that “groups like the Charlottesville Business Innovation Council (CBIC) offer a good way to meet people in the community who may be able to help you out.”
Reflecting on the experience of competing in the 2014 UVA Entrepreneurship Cup, Choi thinks it was “definitely a good way to get some money and exposure. We got a lot of great feedback, but it’s important to remember that your idea isn’t validated by a business plan competition or a venture capitalist, it’s validated by the consumers. It’s important to remember who ultimately decides whether your business succeeds or fails. A positive experience overall and I recommend it to anyone who wants to dip their toes into entrepreneurship in a well-structured manner.”
Towards the Future
Looking forward from the launch, Choi knows that what is going to determine their ultimate success is getting users. “Social startups live and die by how many users they can initially attract. We’re going to focus on user acquisition in the form of Facebook ads and unorthodox marketing.”
The Pear team really wants feedback on the look, the feel, and the functionality of their app. Since the launch on the iOS and Android stores, “We want to see how the use case changes for larger audiences. We want to see what turns people off, what keeps them back coming, and what gets them talking to their friends about this app. We love exposure for that very reason!”
Pear is available on both iOS and Android—definitely check them out and let them know how you like or don’t like it!