Barb Chung presented her lunchlink.co app idea at a Tech Stars session in Kelowna in March.

Image Credit: Submitted/Tech Stars

KELOWNA - While it only took Bark Chung and her team 54 hours to create the lunchlink.co website, getting the connect-over-lunch app up and running is taking considerably longer.

Chung and her five-member team won a $1,200 Valhalla Basecamp prize at the Tech Stars Start Up Weekend in Kelowna in March. But, creating a basic webpage and actually getting an app to market are two different things.

“We’re in the process of doing more market validation,” Chung told iNFOnews.ca today, July 31. “We’re trying to decide if we should build a super basic app, but before that, the team and I felt we needed to do more market validation to make sure there is a problem that we’re solving for.”

The idea is to have the app connected through Linked-In so, when travelling, users can connect with others in the same business so they can meet up for a meal with like-minded people in another city.

The Startup weekend had dozens of local tech enthusiasts testing ideas. They all put out surveys and, of course, everyone filled out everyone else’s surveys so the idea seamed great over that weekend.

But, Chung described that at a “bubble.” Reality is a different thing.

While Chung did go to the Valhalla Basecamp in June, part of the reality is that she and the other three members of her team (one dropped out) have full-time commitments and some had travel plans for the summer.

The other reality, which was pointed out at the Basecamp session with its focus on fundraising options for tech start-ups, is that most start-ups are self-funded or "bootstrap funded." The team wants to make sure their app is on solid ground before investing their own money or looking to raise it elsewhere.

The team is doing some one-on-one surveys and looking to set up email surveys through Linked-in.

Anyone interested in participating can sign up at the lunchlink.co website.

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