Joshua Lewis was always the go-to for where to be on the weekends in Kansas City. The spurred the idea for UpDown Nightlife App. The increase is reliance on our cell phones for every part of life played into the huge launch 2016.
UpDown faced the first huge obstacle seven months later when the app crashed due to user volume. However, Joshua viewed this as a ‘good problem to have’ and took the opportunity to make changes. They added a website and rebranded. Creating partnerships with a veteran DJ (DJ Q) has meant big changes that have drawn interest from multiple investors.
Joshua has worked extensively with Rebecca Gubbels since 2015 at the Missouri SBDC at UMKC. He also attended TECH Venture that year to take his idea from concept to inception.
“Rebecca helped our business tremendously. She dissected our business model and directed us towards how we could make money consistently; by identifying our customer based on how we operated. She also prepped us to be ready to get in front of investors and have what we needed to be taken seriously.”
That preparation led to winning a grant through Digital Sandbox in December 2015. The grant was the boost they needed to launch the next year. Joshua shares that the challenges of funding is finding people that understand the business model and how it works with millennials.
UpDown has been featured in many media outlets:
Contact:
Joshua Lewis
972-834-9566
updownnightlife@gmail.com
