Outernet: The Social Media to Real World Bridge

Danielle Egan and Athena Leong know how to have fun. Between the two of them, they've organized a citywide scavenger hunt in San Francisco and turned a viral prank into an exclusive NYC restaurant for a night. They even created an alternative to a running club for socializing, dubbed a "sit club," where people just bring their chairs and relax. Now, with their new startup, Outernet, the co-founders want to help others add more fun to their lives, too.

The app's name is inspired by the concept of using the internet as a tool to get you to go outside, hence "outernet." It's one of several apps that helps you save the things you see online — like local events, restaurants or bars to try, or other city landmarks — and turn them into a list of to-dos for exploring the world around you.

Outernet's pitch is that instead of simply liking a post about something you'd like to see or do on social media, you should share it to its app, where it will track the activity or place you want to visit for you in an organized interface.

How Outernet Works

To save a post to the app, you'll tap the share option from the source app, like TikTok or Instagram, then scroll through the list of places you can share to until you find Outernet. You can also paste in social media URLs or website links directly into the app, or upload a photo of something you see, like a flyer.

Once you've saved your ideas, Outernet's AI will pull relevant information, like the date, time, location, and details about the activity you want to try or the location of a place you'd like to visit. Events are saved to a chronological feed, which you can revisit whenever you're looking for something to do. Other activities without a date, as well as places you'd like to visit, are organized into separate tabs within the app.

Stamping Your Progress

As you explore places in the real world, you can "stamp" them as such, building what will eventually become a passport documenting your activities.

Future Plans

The founders are now experimenting with new ideas, including using traditional gamification techniques to encourage activity, like giving out stamps when you reach different milestones. They're also thinking of creating a passport book where you can look at all the things you've done and maybe share that with friends and get some sort of sense of pride of that.

Outernet's Mission

"We just realized that people really have an appetite for doing things, like going on adventures. This is the new trend," notes Leong, whose background is in computer science and child development, before she landed a job in adventure game design.

Outernet's app has been on the market for roughly two months and is already profitable from its premium subscription ($6.99/mo or $39.99/year), which lets you save more items per day. It has around 18,000 users in total, and the team is experimenting rapidly with new ideas.

The founders are now having casual conversations with investors about their next steps, but finding the right fit is key.

"We want to bring on investors — if we do — [who are] people who are really aligned with us," says Leong. "We're whimsical, and we have to find investors that match.