Please briefly outline the mission and vision of your project
I will start from the high-level to the root of my mission.
- I wanna help people reach their full potential
- For people to be able to reach their full potential, they need to surround themselves with the right people. And despite how connected we are, it is extremely hard to find “your people”. Whether it’s trying to find a friend or co-founder who shares your ambitions or a partner who brings out the best in you, it takes so much effort and time and a lot of the times we’re not able to find that person.
- But what if we had this person who knows everyone around you and who they are also looking. What if we had this person who is friends with everyone. I would be able to describe exactly who I’m looking for and they would be able to give me a warm introduction to them. They would tell us exactly who we should meet given that they know exactly what I am looking for.
- That friend is an AI that can text and call people anytime anywhere
- This leads us to the next level
- I wanna help people find the right person to meet up with
- To further narrow it down, we researched and saw that university students are the people who would benefit from this app the most.
- Empowering every UCalgary student to connect with exactly who they’re looking for
What problem is it trying to solve? And for whom?
- When I look at the long-term potential of Orbit, there are SO MANY things that it can potentially solve in University life. But for now I am focusing on the core product of giving every student the ability to talk to a friend that knows every other student in university to help them find a friend or a group to connect and belong to
- In some way, it solves the problem of belongingness and loneliness that students feel when they’re unable to find their circle.
- This problem is especially prevalent in extremely diverse communities coming from diverse backgrounds
- Our target audience are first-year students who are newcomers to the city. But it will be accessible for everyone in University Of Calgary. Students and staff
What would you describe as your greatest need(s) at this stage of your project, and why? (i.e., access to funding, expertise, space, etc)
My greatest need is a strong support network, particularly mentorship and connections with other founders. Building a startup solo can be risky. Without others to exchange ideas with, it’s easy to develop tunnel vision or place too much confidence in an unvalidated idea. Having access to experienced mentors and peers would provide invaluable perspective, help me identify blind spots early, and push Orbit in a smarter direction.
It would be helpful but not necessary to get funding to pay off the expenses of running Orbit
What would be 2-3 key milestones you’d hope to achieve by the end of this 6-month Incubator?
- We plan to launch midway through the incubator to get real feedback from real users, but of course by then the product would be rough around the edges. But my hope that with the right mentorship and strategy. We would be able to build and spread a product that is sticky to our target audience.
- We would then focus on listening to people’s feedback and refine the product accordingly and continue to explore potential features to add to the product.
- In addition to that we would of course also prioritize marketing the app to allow our target audience to find Orbit
Why is this the right moment for you to join the R2SI Incubator program?
Our first two iterations of Orbit didn’t really go so well. But I truly believe that this 3rd pivot is the charm. Especially if I am part of this incubator. I have learned so much from the first 2 iterations but what I learned most is that I will never know everything. This is why I need to be surrounded my a supportive circle that can advise me on what I should do and stop me from taking the wrong path before I waste another 500 hours on a failed pivot.
I’d like to start as soon as possible. I know there is a July cohort and a September cohort. My aim is to launch in September. So I’m looking for support now as I prepare for launch.
The R2SI Incubator is focused on supporting ventures/projects that center social impact in their mission and vision. Please briefly describe why this particular Incubator, focused on social impact, was of interest to you?
This is exactly what I am focused on. Whether it’s Orbit, the content I create on YouTube, or my writings. I am determined to create a positive social impact on the world. My history of struggling with social anxiety and several other factors that impacted my ability to connect with people is what fuels this purpose of mine.
I am trying to create that impact within my university so it only makes sense to get support from you guys who have been doing that for years
How long have you been working on this project? Do you have any other members on your team?
- 10 months.
- 300+ hours building an app (500+ hours building a sibling app called Exo that’s also in the area of social impact. More info here: https://getexo.vercel.app/)
- I am working solo on it right now but on the lookout for a cofounder
Have you had any discussions with potential users about their pain points that your offering seeks to address, e.g. through informal phone calls, focus groups, brief surveys, etc? What were your main learnings?
- We’ve been receiving feedback since day 0
- Around September, I began interviewing students in dining halls to better understand their challenges with forming new friendships. I sat with almost 25 strangers and talked with my friends about it
- We then built Orbit as part of a course where we would regularly provide updates to other people in the class, and they would give us feedback.
- The biggest concern with our first iteration was privacy
- And now it’s the same thing with our third iteration.
- Building trust is my top priority with both the students and the university. For that to happen, the app should be extremely secure.
- I have several friends who are specialized in cybersecuity and are also part of the infosec club in UCalgary. I will let them go crazy with trying to break Orbit
Have you had any users or customers of your offering (i.e. product/service) so far? (please distinguish between paying vs not-paying)
- Before I started building Orbit, I reached out to the executives in the Dining Center/The Landing and told them about my plan. They were really impressed and mentioned that they are more than willing to help with marketing the product once it’s out.
- This is crucial because all first year students living on residence eat in there.
- So if we had the opportunity to place QR codes on all the tables, then it would be very easy for Orbit to gain traction and growth if the product works as promised
- We got around 150 users in our Discord community excited to give our app a try. We got these people through filming YouTube videos
- walking around campus wearing a QR code of the server on my shirt.
- https://photos.app.goo.gl/V2BrX1nzapNhVq7RA
- It led to spontaneous conversations, rapid user growth, and even a local news feature: https://livewirecalgary.com/2025/04/18/ucalgarys-qr-code-wearing-superhero-to-launch-his-loneliness-solution-in-fall-2025/
- As mentioned in the article, my goal is to create 100,000 UCalgary student meetups in the first year of launch
Have you mapped out ideas for making this venture/project financially sustainable, e.g. will you be charging a fee for your offering, will you be relying mostly on grants, etc?
I will set limits on how long the calls can be and how many chats you can have with Orbit to avoid people abusing the product. For now, it will remain free as we look to figure out what brings the most value to people and what extra features we can add to it that would make Orbit something worth paying a lot for since it’s solving people’s problems. From there, we will start putting things behind a monthly subscription.