people, friends, together

Our story and our mission

A student time must be one of the best periods in your life. However, this is less and less obvious nowadays. For example, 80% of the students report being lonely. We also see that many students do not even show up on their first day of study after registration. They indicate that their greatest fear, not making friends during their student days, is what keeps them from entering.

Having good (social) contacts is inextricably linked to a pleasant and successful student life. 

Our mission:
People are happier when they feel connected. We believe that for real connection you should be able to find and meet like-minded people. We see it as our mission to bring people into contact with each other locally and to ensure more encounters.

With Joinby, an organization, such as a school/university, neighborhood or company, launching its own community for its target group. After registering once, participants can immediately find each other, make contact and easily undertake activities together. Everything as simple and accessible as possible with the aim: more contact & more encounters.

Why Joinby?

Business model

Joinby is a social enterprise: Our primary goal is to connect people and prevent mental problems and/or dropout. We invest income mainly to further improve our platform and to look at new opportunities to connect people.

An organization pays us, through a subscription and start-up amount, for it 
Setting up of its own community, the maintenance and the further development. That way we can keep our platform relevant and free for the people who use it. This also ensures that we have no interest in 'keeping people online' for commercial purposes (as with many major social media platforms).

Would you like to know more about our platform and vision? Get in touch.

What makes a good life?

Inspiration for us: hard evidence for the importance of good social relationships 

center for human tech

Technology for people

Technology that stands for human values: bringing people together offline instead of keeping them online for as long as possible to sell ads; Talk to each other instead of drifting apart; Pay attention to what makes us happy.

More info: Center for Human Technology: https://www.humanetech.com/

Our team

Bas Kremer Hovinga

Product development & support

Sander Valk

Marketing & Sales

Benno Nekeman

Counselor

Wall of fame

We are very grateful to these people for their contribution to Joinby:

Flip van den Bosch
Ruud Sytsema
Sander Valk
Koen Olijve
Fedor Brookman
Jochem Toolenaar
Benno Nekeman

Alyssia Maatita
Suus Versteeg
Mohamed Jimale
Saly Baroudic
Basten Arends
Souhaire Mabrouk

Our trip

Idea for Joinby

Idea for Joinby inspired by this TED Talk, the 'Time well spent' movement (now: humunetech) and own experiences of moving to a new city. Finding like-minded people from the neighborhood should be much easier & better, right?

June 2018 - Dec 2019
Official start

Follow a course Human Centered Design, conversations with people in the neighborhood about needs around getting to know new people, analysis solutions and current behavior and finally the development of a concept for a local social community platform and search for co-founders and/or app builder.

Jan 2019
Start building Joinby app 1.0
Start building the Joinby app in collaboration with a developer in Amsterdam/India. Various tests with acquaintances and conversations with local companies for cooperation
Sep 2019
Launch beta community Utrecht

Launch community in Utrecht in beta. Collecting feedback from users: what is needed? Adjust the app on that basis and prepare it for the 'real' launch.

Jan 2020
Go live Utrecht & surroundings

We are really live! Cool examples of people who meet via Joinby for coffee, squash, pub quizzes, film and much more. At the same time, people realize how difficult it is to build a community from scratch.

Mon 2020
Corona pandemic

Corona pandemic erupts, less useful for a concept aimed at meeting in person. At the same time, this also makes clear how important real social contact is. Difficult moment in which it was seriously considered to stop.

Apr - Dec 2020
Launching communities together

Based on a concrete request from a school and a company (for an accessible social platform), the concept will be adapted: from now on build communities in collaboration with existing organizations. Building a brand new platform with 'communities' for organizations, a new development partner, partner and first customer!

Jan 2021
Launch Joinby 2.0

Launch Joinby 2.0 with its own communities for organisations, open or closed. Re-launch Utrecht community and soon after in February start with the first customer: Thomas More Belgium 

2021
New customers & program The Hague

Follow new customers (Karel de Grote, Westergouwe, AMS, etc.) and participate in the Startup in Residence program of the Municipality of The Hague (SIR Intergov). Continuous development of the app based on customer & user questions.

Nov 2021
Impact Prize Winner

Profit impact price SIR program The Hague

Summer 2022
Launch web version

Joinby now also available via desktop and laptop (web version) to make our platform even more accessible and accessible

phone

Curious?

We also to you. Please schedule a no-obligation meeting with us. In 45 minutes we discuss your challenges, possible solutions and take a look at our platform.