When two childhood friends put their idea together, it ignited a pink and black flame on smartphones across the country.
Mark Weiss, 21, and Avi Jerushalmy, 21, realized they were wasting too much time and money on their nights out, so they took matters into their own hands.
These two full-time college students from Yeshiva University and Binghamton University, respectively, decided to create an app that would allow consumers to rate nightlife as it was happening.
With Lit, users can anonymously check in with how good or bad bar life is, get drink specials and see where their close friends are.
“You get to see the hottest venue instantaneously, which place has the shortest line and which place is giving free cover,” explains co-founder and CEO Mark Weiss.
Not only that, but Lit also recently introduced a new feature where students can receive exclusive specials on the app.
The app also lets users know where their friends are. Lit is spreading to college campuses across the country. At each college campus with a Lit chapter, there is a campus manager and a number of Brand Ambassadors.
“What it is, is a college student product made by college students.”
Weiss said it took a year for him and Jerushalmy to create the app. Many obstacles got in their way, but they persevered.
Weiss, along with COO Jerushalmy, may be just 21, but after developing the app they have gained enough experience to offer advice to those interested in app development.
“I think the most important thing is having passion for what you want to do. If you are passionate for a start up or a new app that you want to create, it will get you through all of the failure and the hurdles and the brick walls. You really have to be open to learn- ing and trying to find information from different people. You never know whom you could learn from. Go at it head on and commit to it 100 percent.”
Weiss and Jerushalmy are just getting started. In the fall semester, they expanded to three more college campuses, with one of those being West Chester University.
So far, in West Chester, Lit has partnered up with Más, Saloon 151 and Ryan’s Pub. Behind all of this was West Chester’s Lit Campus Manager, Aidan Paggao.
Paggao is a senior marketing major who wanted to be a part of Lit after the company mirrored his interests.
“I got involved after I saw a post about it on the Class of 2017 Facebook page. I originally just wanted to become a Brand Ambassador, but because I have a lot of real world marketing experience, they wanted me to be a Campus Manager.”
Paggao helped organize the Kick Off Event on Sept. 1 at Ryan’s Pub. The launch event proved how powerful the app was. After word spread it, people flooded in.
Lit is just beginning now, but in the future it will be expanding to more college campuses.
Amanda Saleh is a third-year student with a majoring in communication studies with minors in journalism and Arabic. She can be reached at AS821872@wcupa.edu.