New York, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/08/2013 -- During the Summer of 2010, Kyle McShane, Jerry Decelian, and Benjamin Joseph found themselves careened on the Syracuse University campus. They would attend Summer classes, and then hang out at the off-campus house which they rented. Although they did enjoy one another's company, they found themselves returning to the same question before each evening; “what is going on tonight?” and “where are the house parties ?”. Eventually, they would succumb to the idea that there was not a thing to do, or they would tell themselves that the lack of a social scene was due to the severely dwindled number of students who stayed for summer courses. They would soon come to realize that neither of these assumptions was actually true. There were people willing to go out; they just had no idea where they should, or could be going.
Jerry would go on to suggest that they needed a system, through which, they could spread information about events happening both on as well as off-campus. From this idea a Facebook group and fan page was born. To their surprise, many students subscribed to their page, eager for a voice to guide them from the monotony of the dark and into the bright lights of a college party. Once they had proven to themselves that there were people who could use their services, they decided that they needed to do more, to go BIGGER!
This decision spurred the group to create their own social network specializing in events! Months of hard work later, they decided that they could confidently release FiestaFrog.com for beta testing. Their venture, a website that automatically updates users about what is going on in their area and allows promoters to easily and effectively advertise their events to users. Their system is built to allow for spreading information to larger groups of people than Facebook’s Events section.
After a fruitful testing period, and successfully winning $5,000 from the Raymond Von Dran IDEA Awards, the largest startup funding competition for college and university student entrepreneurs in New York State, these young entrepreneurs decided to enter into Syracuse University's 2012 Panasci Business Plan Competition, hosted by the Falcone Center for Entrepreneurship in the Whitman School of Management. They managed to come away with the grand prize, securing $25,000 in seed funding.
On this day, they are happy to announce that the team has eagerly been making adjustments to the site, in order to make it easier for users, bars, and promoters to share their events. Users can share their events to their Facebook friends, send out tweets about where they are going each night and even chat with people in the party before they get there finding out if the scene is enjoyable, or whether they should look for greener pastures elsewhere.
After successfully creating and sharing this vision with students and young professionals of Central New York, the team is hoping to take New York City by storm. Already boasting 1000+ daily events in New York City, and adding more bar specials, clubs, and concerts to the events displayed. The website also displays events in Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, and Philadelphia. The founders are hoping to build off of this positive momentum, and are confident that many new users will take advantage of the social network’s events to celebrate not just New Year’s Eve, but many other events on their social calendar with Fiesta Frog.
Benjamin A. Joseph
Chief Administrative Officer
(845) 481-3204
BenJoseph@FiestaFrog.com
http://www.fiestafrog.com/