Trade clxiv | Month 23 | Spring
Enquire App
The app world is out of control, we have apps to help us poop, sing and spy on almost anyone in the world. The team behind the app Enquire spotted something in the social environment that is slowly diminishing, so they built this app to reconnect people and this is how it works:
‘Enquire is a local playground for your hood.
Did you ever wonder if your landlord is overcharging for rent? Curious to find out if the bartender with a unicorn tattoo is single?
Find answers to all these questions with Enquire.
Enquire is an app that allows you to ask anything in a hood. By posting and replying to questions to other locals in this hood, Enquire builds local communities for all curious minds.
Unleash your curiosity. Find out what's good in the hood!’
The Pixel Trade was exploring, with the two founders, different neighbourhoods in Brooklyn and capturing their distinct aspects. It has been one of the most interesting experiences to see a visual change between each hood, everything from architecture, language, culture and religion can be tremendously different from one street to the next. Only in New York City.
| note: if the images don't fit on your screen, don't be frightened to click on them |
Interview with Maxime Leroy
CEO
Describe your most memorable adventure as a child.
During the summer I started building bows and arrows for myself in the wood. As they started to become more and more powerful and beautifully designed everyday, my friends started to want one as well. By the time we had to go back to school we were all shooting arrows in the wood which seemed super funny to us, until our parents discovered it and went, rightfully, crazy about it. 15 years later, I now see how crazy it was but I still believe I made my best craft that summer :)
What is Enquire?
Enquire is an app to Ask anything in your neighborhood and get candid answers from locals.
What happened the day you decided to create the Enquire app?
We went have drink, wine and cheese to celebrate? Also look at question 6 (If you could teach something...). Which is why I believe it was not the most important day of the whole adventure so far.
Were there any long arduous processes involved in its creation?
Coming to the US, legally, was quite a journey. We really wanted and needed to be in New York City to build Enquire, but it was not that easy and the visa process is particularly long and exhausting. I have never met anyone so far (even a celebrity) telling me how easily they got their visa, I think that person is a unicorn.
What do you want Enquire to become in the future?
Enquire is the first step towards more app, services that will (re)build the neighborhood layer of our cities. We aim to (re)connect people with their surroundings, to make them enjoy the most of out their city by meeting new people and places. Enquire is our first Q&A app in that direction. More is coming!
If you could teach something, anything, to a group of people, what would it be?
Everyone should start working, testing, experimenting on their ideas. The world of ideas is the world of frustration: “It has already been done”, “I can’t share my idea to anyone people will steal it”, … The truth is that this frustration coming from staying at this idea level will likely kill your entrepreneurial spirit overtime. Executing on your idea has the power to make you happier everyday. As you will learn something new, see what is working or not, you will eventually feel empowered by your project and rarely refer to it as the “idea” anymore when you try to convince future employees or investors. You will refer to it as the project and simply be excited to demonstrate it, showing how it actually works.
Next time you have an idea in mind, just start building something to further convince yourself and others, even if it is just for a day. Or forget this idea right now. Keeping it in mind for days or months is not the way to go.
What is something you haven’t told someone in a long time?
I love my family. And being away from them can be very painful sometimes.
If you could do anything tomorrow, what would you do?
Travel. Travel to meet people.
Describe your most memorable adventure as an adult.
Oh ok, I’m an adult now. *sad*
As for the most memorable adventure, I would say creating and shooting the Collaborative Cities documentary on the sharing economy two years ago. I had the opportunity to see who I’d like to interview, in which cities, and then go shoot these interviews for 2 months around the world. It was a coming-out-of-age kind of moment.
If you had to recommend a favourite music album, what would it be?
Happiness by HURTS.
Complete albums are not really my thing but I’ve been nurturing this playlist since 2008: http://hypem.com/macsym
