What can the Driftr App do for you?
- Locate people drifting nearby you in real-time
- Get to know the essentials about a driftr by viewing their profile to see their interests, latest checkpoints, future stops and vehicle type.
- Use the chat to organize a meetup and share your location with new friends.
- The Stories section directs you to the latest blog posts from fellow vanlifers and provides exclusive content on meetups and events organized within the driftr community.
- Search locations visited by driftrs in the past. You can see reviews and even ask questions.
- Worried about your privacy? Don't be! With a click of a button, you can be on or off the driftr grid.
- Input your entire itinerary from latest checkpoints to future stops so other driftrs can plan meetups with you along the way.
- Hit up the deals section to take advantage of exclusive deals on must-haves for vanlifers and outdoor adventure enthusiasts.
Why Vanlifers Need The Driftr App
Vanlife is not just about stopping at the most photogenic places to snap a photo for Instagram, it was built on the idea of connecting like-minded vandwellers and outdoor adventure enthusiasts together in one community.
Being experienced vandwellers ourselves, we realized that life on the road can get lonely. We knew we were missing out on incredible experiences that could be shared with others because we had no means of finding other vanlifers nearby.
To us, the next logical step was to use technology and our mobile phone to quickly and efficiently connect with people in real-time.
Traveling solo or with a partner can be really exciting and life-changing but after a certain amount of time you desire human interaction. With the Driftr App now we no longer need to dream of what it would be like to organize a surfer beach tailgate or a bonfire party in the bush; it can be done in minutes.
The size of the vanlife community is much larger than we can even imagine. This lifestyle has become a growing trend over the last few years and there are no signs of it slowing down. We want to make the driftr community an inclusive place for everyone passionate about the lifestyle.
Not only do we want to connect people on the road, our goal is to continue to develop ideas for the driftr app that will focus on the community and lifestyle aspects of vanlife. We hope that people who aren't necessarily vanlifers themselves can also be part of the community within the app by reading the content and connecting with driftrs to learn more about their experiences.
This is what vanlife means to us and we designed the Driftr App with this in mind.
The Driftr Team
The Founders
Hi! We are Jelena and Thibaut: your typical millennial couple. You know, the ones that meet on Tinder, spend their second date at a 3 day music festival and eventually buy a used van to renovate into their home on wheels. One of THOSE couples.
After nearly two years of dating and two years spent daydreaming of owning our own van, we had finally found the ONE. Thibaut and I joined the vanlife community in July 2016 when we adopted our first vanchild, a '93 Renault Trafic named Jean-Claude Van Dinic.
We quickly became addicted to the lifestyle and truly passionate about the community while on the road. However, we realized something quite quickly during our travels. It can get lonely on the road. We would arrive at a certain location and crave cracking open a beer with some new friends to chat about life on the road. But, there was no one around. Sure its great to swipe through photos on Instagram of other people doing the same thing as we were, but we wanted real human interaction. This is how the idea of Driftr App was born.
App Developers - Hypercube
We have teamed up with top-notch app developers in Niš, Serbia who are helping us bring our idea to life. Established in 2013 as Hypercube LLC, they specialize in helping startups like Driftr from all over the world to create their minimum viable product (MVP), prepare it for market launch and aid in scaling. Hypercube has successfully delivered more than 50 projects, creating more than 100 iOS and Android apps with millions of users. Their success is attributed to having a well-rounded team of: 4 iOS developers, 4 Android developers, 1 QA engineer, 1 UI/UX designer, and 1 backend developer. Their diverse skills and experience allows them to take on any new idea and build it from scratch. They have been a tremendous support in helping the Driftr App team determine the possibilities and the best course of action to bring a high-quality, market-ready app to you. However, without fully funding this project, we will not be able to continue with developing the app.
Budget Breakdown
The majority of funds will be spent on the development of the Driftr app, and on costs surrounding that development. There are also the mandatory fees to IndieGogo as well as ordering the awesome perks for you!
Our Goal is to raise $20,000, which gets us an iPhone app. If we raise even more than our goal, 30,000 raised gets us an Android app as well!
Typically a project of this magnitude would be well into six-figure range. Due to strategic partnerships and the team’s experience level, we will be able to make the driftr app with much less.
Funds above $30,000 will be spent on Stage II development, which includes further optimizing the application based on community feedback, improving premium features, readying the app for monetization, and sharing the app with thousands of people around the world.
Timeline
We have a very ambitious timeline that we have discussed in-depth with the Hypercube team who are determined to bring you the Driftr App just in time for your summer road trip! We will work non-stop to reach this target and ensure we get it to you as quickly as we can.
- Run Indiegogo Campaign: Mid-March - Beginning of May 2017 (~45 days)
- App Developed: May- End of June 2017 (2 months)
- Beta Testing: End of June - beginning of July 2017
- Launch App in the App Store: end of July 2017
Driftr App Partners
We are so incredibly fortunate that so many companies, brands and influencers within the community believe in our vision. Without their support and positive encouragement we could not make this possible. Their donations and support allows us to not only provide vanlifers with incredible perks but also spread the word throughout our community.
Perks have been provided by: Riparide, Teton Sports, Mr. Heater, Fatboy - the Original Lamzac, Bio Lite Energy and Proven Overland Magazine.
Companies, brands and influencers helping spread the word via social media: Hikers Brew Coffee, Advanture.Co, Exploring Alternatives, Go-Van, Moment Lens Co., Will and Bear, Vanlife.tv, Modern Day Mavericks, Wikicahttp://blog.wikicampers.fr/driftr-lapplication-voyageurs-nomades/mpers, Digital Nomads Media
How You Can Help
1. Back the Project
Make a pledge by clicking the BACK IT button above, and choose whatever reward fits you. Feel the magnitude of your pledge. You aren't just contributing to something that can be of benefit to you; you are also supporting vanlifers all over the world who want to make the community more active and attractive. Note: we cannot develop the app without this funding!
2. Share Our Story
Share our IndieGogo Campaign via email, Facebook, Twitter, phone calls, text messages and through old fashioned conversations. The Driftr app will continue to come to life because a community wanted and created its emergence!
3. Leave Your Mark
At the end of the campaign you’ll be able to tell us what kind of features and functionalities you are most looking forward to using and suggesting new ones we may have not thought of just yet. Please do this! We want to use our community feedback as an important pointer as we build the production version of the app!
Risks & Challenges
The app developers at Hypercube are very experienced, but there will always be risks in any app development effort:
- This is a mobile, web, and server based software project, with all the risks normally associated with software development.
- There are also various risks in approval and deployment from Apple that are out of our control. We do not anticipate any problems but it’s a process that we do not control.
- Project costs and schedule estimates are the result of our evaluation of the technical and approval risks and Hypercube's deep familiarity with this type of project. There will, of course, be some unforeseen glitches, which will promptly be reported in the Updates section. We are committed to completing this project once the funding goal has been achieved, and keeping you informed every step of the way.