Sidequest
The World Is Better
Than Your Feed.
The internet is lonely, but the real world is exciting — if you know where to look.
The internet promised to connect us. And in many ways, it did. But it connected us to screens, not to each other. Most nights look the same: You're a little tired. You open your phone. You scroll. Not because it's what you really want, but because doing something with people is surprisingly hard.
Your friends are busy. Your group chat is quiet. Planning something means texting twenty people just to see if two are free. So the easier option wins. You stay home. You watch something. You scroll a little more.
Everywhere around you are people
in the exact same situation.
Across your town, your campus, and your neighborhood, there are people who also want to get out, meet others, and do something interesting.
The problem was never a lack of people. It was that they couldn't find each other.
A Better Way
Sidequest is how you make plans without texting anyone. Open the app and see a live feed of small groups doing things around you — right now, or later today. A pickup game, a hiking trail, a board game night, a coffee shop study session.
Find something that looks good. Join in one tap. Or start your own. Post it in 30 seconds and it reaches everyone nearby who's looking for exactly that.
You're not matching with anyone. You're not messaging strangers cold. You're just doing something you already wanted to do — with people who also wanted to do it.
The world we want
We're building toward a simple idea:
- Spontaneous plans are easy
- Meeting new people feels normal
- There's always something small and low-pressure to join nearby
- No one stays home because they couldn't find someone to go with
- Life has a little bit more adventure
"Strangers are just friends
you haven't met yet."
At any moment, multiple people close to you want to do the same thing. They're in the same neighborhood, and right now, they're probably scrolling through something, wishing they had a plan. We built Sidequest to make those people visible to each other.
The magic moment isn't even in the app. It's when you're in the middle of something fun making new friends and you think about the counterfactual: if not for this, I'd be watching TV right now.
That's the whole point.
That's Sidequest.
Sidequest Local is a passion project built by a two-person team split between the mountains of Colorado Springs, CO and the rolling hills of Charlottesville, VA.
I'm Thomas Blalock, a Master's of Data Science student at the University of Virginia. We built Sidequest Local because we believe that finding community and adventure was harder than it needed to be. I think we often waste those afternoons when our friends are busy, those weekends when we have the energy to explore but no plan, and those niche activity ideas that we can never quite find others to join us on. Life is short. Taking advantage of these opportunities should be easy. And with your help, it will be.
Interested in working with Sidequest Local? Reach me directly at:
[email protected]