34: Venn - The App to Make Friends with Jesper Algaard

03/30/22 • 45 min

Jesper Algaard is the Founder and CEO of the Venn app. Venn is Norwegian for “friend” and it’s an app designed to help people make friends. This is done by matching people based on similar interests and personalities, as well creating activities to move the online conversations to in-person interactions. In this episode, Jesper shares his inspiration behind creating this app, curious facts about human connection, and stories about how connection comes about in different stages of our lives.

Highlights & Takeaways

When Jesper was in his 30s, he realized that his social life was changing quite a bit: friends who he used to regularly hang out with became less available because they got married. Venn came out of the idea of utilizing technology to help people be more social with the right people.
Norway is a “very non-flirty population” as compared to people in Spain and Italy. Norwegians won’t sit next to each other if they don’t have to, and people prefer being at a distance.
50% of their users are people who are actually in a relationship - they may have a family, kids, and friends, but they still want more.
How he had a surprising friendship with an 80-year-old man by connecting over world politics and economics.
How he also had a several hour conversation with a Japanese TV celebrity without expecting it
“If you have a friend who you haven’t talked to in a long time, I would say pick up the phone and have a chat because good friends are probably one of the most things we can have. Friends rock!”

Resources Mentioned

Contact Jesper: LinkedIn
Venn: Website | App Store | Google Play

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Highlights & Takeaways

When Jesper was in his 30s, he realized that his social life was changing quite a bit: friends who he used to regularly hang out with became less available because they got married. Venn came out of the idea of utilizing technology to help people be more social with the right people.
Norway is a “very non-flirty population” as compared to people in Spain and Italy. Norwegians won’t sit next to each other if they don’t have to, and people prefer being at a distance.
50% of their users are people who are actually in a relationship - they may have a family, kids, and friends, but they still want more.
How he had a surprising friendship with an 80-year-old man by connecting over world politics and economics.
How he also had a several hour conversation with a Japanese TV celebrity without expecting it
“If you have a friend who you haven’t talked to in a long time, I would say pick up the phone and have a chat because good friends are probably one of the most things we can have. Friends rock!”

Resources Mentioned

Contact Jesper: LinkedIn
Venn: Website | App Store | Google Play

______

Enjoyed this episode? Share it with a friend and make sure to follow Excuses to Connect on Facebook and Instagram.

Music by Meghan Rennie - Instagram / Soundcloud

Website: excusestoconnect.com

Watch my TEDx Talk: “How to Find Excuses to Connect”

Email: [email protected]

Leave a Voice Message: https://www.speakpipe.com/excusestoconnect

Support Me: Buy Me A Coffee

Previous Episode

33: How to Build Your Dream Network with J. Kelly Hoey

J. Kelly Hoey is the author of Build Your Dream Network: Forging Powerful Relationships In A Hyper-Connected World. She’s currently working on her second book which focuses on the unique networks women need for career success. Kelly has been lauded by Forbes (“1 of 5 Women Changing the World of VC/Entrepreneurship”) and Business Insider (“1 of the 100 Most Influential Tech Women On Twitter”), has contributed to a variety of publications including The New York Times - these and other unexpected career opportunities she notes, are a direct result of building a network. Join us for an insightful conversation on the do’s and don’ts of networking, and how you can start building your dream network today.

Highlights & Takeaways

Don’t commit random acts of networking. Kelly advises you to think: “Is this activity somehow aligned with information I need, or a goal I’m pursuing, or to fill an identifiable gap I have in the network supporting my career?”
As young people, you can still provide value to other people who are further along in their career or more successful. People mentor others because they get a helper’s high, and if you let someone know how their advice or connection helped them, then that is adding value to the relationship.
Think about how digital spaces compare to physical spaces. LinkedIn is like the office or industry conferences. Facebook is where your friends and family gather. Twitter is the cocktail party. Instagram is like a yard sale, where you never know what’s going to happen.
For people who are in their early 20s, your network is not likely to be more diverse than it is right now. The people you went to the same school with are going to have careers in all sorts of different directions over the next 5 to 10 years. By staying in touch, you’re going to have a very diverse network.
Start building your dream network before you think you need it. Nurture the relationships you have today thinking about where you want to go in the next 5 to 10 years.
Showing up regularly, intentionally and consistently is how you build trust. You confirm and affirm who you are so that other people will want to help you.

Resources Mentioned

Contact Kelly: Website
Kelly’s Books: Build Your Dream Network | Networks Women Need
Bird by Bird by Anne Lemott
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King

______

Enjoyed this episode? Share it with a friend and make sure to follow Excuses to Connect on Facebook and Instagram.

Music by Meghan Rennie - Instagram / Soundcloud

Website: excusestoconnect.com

Watch my TEDx Talk: “How to Find Excuses to Connect”

Email: [email protected]

Leave a Voice Message: https://www.speakpipe.com/excusestoconnect

Support Me: Buy Me A Coffee

Next Episode

35: Fighting People Named “Josh” with Josh Swain

Out of pandemic boredom, Josh Swain created a Facebook group chat with other people named Josh Swain and challenged them to meet in a year to compete for the right to use the name “Josh”. The screenshot of this group chat went viral on the Internet and led to this event being dubbed the “Josh” fight. Although he just intended it to be a joke, it became an actual event and fundraiser for the Children's Hospital & Medical Center Foundation in Omaha, along with a food drive for the Food Bank of Lincoln. This story was a perfect example of an excuse to connect and I knew I wanted to have Josh Swain on the show. Enjoy this shorter episode as he shares about the creation of this event and what he’s up to now!

Highlights & Takeaways

Josh has always tried to go for the username and social media handle “Josh Swain”, but it’s almost always been taken already, so he wanted to challenge people to see who really deserves this title.
He thought only maybe 50 people would show up, but it ended up being almost a thousand people coming together to fight each other with pool noodles.
Josh ended up raising over $15,000, thousands of pounds of food for the food bank, and even had the Josh Cellars company triple their donation.
He’s hosting another Josh Fight on May 21, 2022 to remind people that even though we’re doing something ridiculous, we can still bring some good to the world.
If there’s something you want to do, Josh advises: “Don't think about the billion things preventing you from doing it. My main mantra in life is: ‘If you don't do something, you will always wonder what would happen if you did.’”

Resources Mentioned