LynkedOut, a new startup striving to be social network about everything nightlife in Boston, is looking to answer that age-old question: What should we do tonight? What initially began as a “Fastpass for nightlife,” allowing users to skip the lines at popular venues, morphed into a monster of a super app.
“I was waiting outside Royale with a friend,” Michael Rabinovich, founder and CEO of LynkedOut, told me. “We were trying to get into the club and had to stand out in the snow. I turned to him and said, ‘Man, I would pay any amount of money right now not to wait out here.’”
With that idea in mind, he proceeded to use his free time - 1 to 3 a.m. every Friday and Saturday - to work on a startup that would let people surpass lines for bars, lounges and clubs. And he came close to rolling the service out until he was promptly forced to pivot.
“We went to talk to venues and see what they thought about it,” he said. “They all liked the vibe and said they’d be up for testing it. But the next thing we knew, a couple of weeks later, TableList came out with the same feature.”
Rabinovich quietly went back to the drawing board, spending time living out of his car and sleeping in the Bentley auditorium while he salvaged his startup. Two years later, LynkedOut reemerged as a comprehensive social network and guide centered on going out in the city.
Through the LynkedOut app, which is now available on the App Store for free, people can plan their nights out on the town with minimal effort. Rabinovich has personally compiled a select list of the best venues for young professionals in Boston, holding them to high standards in terms of service, menu choices, ambience and sanitation.
“Unlike Yelp, we don’t give you hundreds of random options," he said. "We only want to give you the best of the best."
Unlike Yelp, we don’t give you hundreds of random options.
LynkedOut users can browse the selections, which are broken down into a number of different categories depending on what they’re looking to get out of their evenings. Categories include bars, nightclubs, late night food, booze tours, comedy clubs, seasonal outings and movie theaters.
Let’s say you’re looking to go to a bar. LynkedOut will help you narrow down your options based on your preferences. It will sort your venue choice into specific sections like cocktail bars, hookah bars, sports bars, wine bars and rooftop bars.
You can click into venues to see more details about it, such as the kind of music they play and the noise level there. Through LynkedOut, you can also coordinate your transportation to the locale, having the Uber fare estimates and closest T stop right at your fingertips.
“We want you to do the least number of clicks to figure out where you want to go,” Rabinovich said. “The same goes with events happening in the city.”
LynkedOut is calling itself “The Nightlife Social Network.” So there’s a heavy social element to the app that Rabinovich thinks will foster connectivity among young city folks making plans to go out.
Users can create profiles on LynkedOut, complete with bios and embeds from their other social media pages. People can invite one another to connect, and there’s a chat function for sending venues and events to friends with whom they're planning an evening out. And LynkedOut offers a news feed so you can see who’s connecting with whom and where everyone’s going out.
Boston is the first city where LynkedOut is available. Since its launch December 1, LynkedOut has reached 10,000 users. Rabinovich told me they have six cities cued up and ready to go, but they’ll be rolled out at different times.
LynkedOut has been bootstrapped so far. According to Rabinovich, he has a couple of possible revenue streams that he'll be testing.
