Since we launched the app last week, we’ve all been annoying asking our friends and family to download HowMuch to try it out and give us some feedback.

Fast forward to this past Saturday night at a local dive bar. My brother and I have this friend who, for lack of understanding on my part because he could be Ryan Reynolds and Ryan Gosling’s lovechild, tends to have a little bit of a problem sealing the deal with the ladies.  After a few rounds of shots, we figured why not help the dude out?

Thus began the first time HowMuch was successfully (and unsuccessfully) introduced to the bar setting.

HowMuch request: Hit On The Brunette

Total: $25.00

Time frame: 2 hours

As you can see here, our boy did it. We sat far enough away to keep from looking too creepy, but close enough to stare him down hard enough to make sure he didn’t wuss out.

Now here’s where it all went terribly wrong.

Yeah, he got the girl’s number….Yeah, he got paid $25 for something that was pretty easy. It wasn’t until the bar manager came over to chat when we realized we had done something horribly awkward.

Backstory: it was the manager’s birthday so the majority of the bar was there to celebrate in his honor. While telling him about the app as so often happens in any of our team’s lives outside of the office, I proceeded to show him the evidence.

Turns out the Reynolds-Gosling baby had unintentionally hit on our dear bar manager’s baby mama…. The birthday boy was less than pleased.

We were asked to leave shortly thereafter.

Moral of the story is this: you should ABSOLUTELY use HowMuch in situations like this where friends need more than a little liquid courage, just be prepared for the social consequences that may arise from doing so.

Til next time!

-KP

Community Manager

The Interactive portion of SXSW is slowly winding down, but that doesn’t mean that every day hasn’t been just as exciting as the last. The real difference has been seen in a shift among the hoards of people occupying downtown Austin from carrying around laptop bags to lugging around guitar cases.

There’s a day or two of overlap between the Interactive and Music parts of SXSW and that means that the parties have only gotten that much better. Yesterday we found ourselves at an event thrown by Samsung Mobile, only to find out that the already swanky party was going to be the backdrop for an exclusive performance by Talib Kweli. Today that same lounge was filled with a slightly different crowd as people flocked to see a set by Mayer Hawthorne.No big deal, right?!

While I’ll undoubtedly admit that we have been geeking out over everything we’ve seen tech-related here at SXSW, it’s been really exciting knowing you are surrounded by such great musical talents too. We’ve heard rumors of Prince taking over SXSW (after we return to CA unfortunately) and Justin Timberlake performing with Jay Z at some venue other than my dreams, but catching smaller bands perform at an intimate bar has been equally as amazing.

Last night I saw the intersection of music and tech firsthand after tagging along with a few musicians from back home who are performing at SXSW this week.  Swapping stories and hopes for what SXSW would bring us all was proof to me that HowMuch isn’t just a platform for friends to make and accept challenges with each other. There is so much potential to help up-and-coming talent interact with fans, create exclusive content and maybe raise a few dollars to help fund their musical/touring endeavors.  

Those types of discussions, on top of meeting up with several prominent personalities on YouTube who are also into our app is what networking here is all about. We’ve been lucky enough to have met people who aren’t shy with their opinions of the app and how they could see themselves using it, and every piece of feedback we get is a tiny little gift. After months of working on HowMuch behind the scenes, it’s been really cool sharing the idea with people for the first time and seeing them picture exactly what we’ve been visualizing from day one. Ok, maybe day two.

Free drinks. Free rides. Free Rsvps to parties. Pitching to dudes in line while waiting to see Bun B at the @smirnoff viceland house. No big deal. Just living the awesome SXSW life while we are lucky enough to be here.

Austin is the hub. The tech, mobile, social media hub. We’re all here to congregate and learn. Well, to socialize and drink too but more importantly hang out and meet people who want to hear about our app and what we want to do with it.

-kp

T-minus 5 days until our team will be sitting side-by-side on a 30+ hour train ride to Austin for this year’s SXSW extravaganza.  (Our iOS developer, Tyler, is the only one wise enough to fly. Hey…. we can’t all be ballers.)

The preparations have already begun mentally and physically for sleepless nights, party hopping days/evenings, and irresponsible decisions regarding diet and alcohol consumption.. all while simultaneously grabbing the attention of as much of the crowd there as we can.

No big deal, right?

We’ll be live blogging the shenanigans as often as humanly possible so those of you who can’t make it will either be able to live vicariously through us, or be happy that you opted to stay home this year.

If you’ll be in the heart of the Lone Star state next week, email me so we can meet up for some drinks (kristin@howmuch.to). We’ll play rock/paper/scissors to decide who pays. NO CHEATING. 

See you in Austin!!!

-Kristin