Tackling Loneliness: An App That Goes Beyond Social

Loneliness is becoming a debilitating trend among many social groups, particularly across cities. However, one app, Potluck.us, is seeking to bring joy into people’s lives through the power of shared experiences.

Nashville, TN., former marketing leader Justin Gray devised the subscription-based platform that is built to be a long-term ‘partner’ in people’s lives rather than be a short-run event planning app.

“Potluck’s overarching aim is to combat loneliness,” said Gray. “It is designed to be relevant in a person’s life as it focuses more on the social and less on the media part of social media.”

It was created to help people manage their entire social calendar. Such shared experiences create a better sense of community over communication. A subscriber can create a list of what to bring and send out invitations. It also provides a private chat box and a special Moments Page to download magic moments from the event.

“Potluck retains the event history, such as your connections, so that we allow that data to organically build a social platform that we then give back to you,” said Gray.

“Our focus of the Potluck social experience is not your connections; it’s the events you had, who was there, and how you are connected to those people.”

Subscribers have grasped the positives of Potluck as it has transcended beyond traditional birthdays and special family events. It can be handy for any event, such as a cookbook club and barbecues.

He added: “When people find Potluck, it becomes an incredibly empowering part of their lives and event planning. We’re aimed at very busy parents. For example, a mom of three in the Midwest needs to organize her children’s school year, her church functions, picnics in the park, and social calendar over the year.

“Potluck is the foundation for them while helping convert their friends at the party to understand how amazing the app is. They utilize the app to organize their own personal and family events. It has snowballed and is quickly gaining traction.”

He added: “I’ve spent years researching and working in traditional social media and mobile technology. I believe strongly that mobile technology and social networks play a crucial role in why we have an epidemic of loneliness. That has guided our design principles and is positioned to prevent people from becoming lonely.”

The app’s origins can be linked to Gray’s shared experiences being raised on a rural Mississippi cattle farm. Childhood memories revolved around a close-knit rural community and food.

“When somebody was born, married, or died, you took food. That’s just the way of life that I grew up with. From a personal perspective, I had an early fundamental understanding of what it means to come together as a community,” he reflected.

That experience stayed and was later nurtured when he relocated to New York, where he dipped into comedy and acting before taking a crack at entertainment marketing and business

development. He met and fell in love with Sarah in 2009, and so began the seeds of what eventually transitioned into Potluck.

They bonded over a love of hosting and entertaining and created a cookbook club. “The concept was simple,” he reflected, “it’s like a potluck or a dinner club, except the gimmick is that everybody has to cook a recipe out of the same cookbook every month. So whoever’s hosting that month picks a cookbook. Then everybody figures out who’s doing what recipe. Then you have the party with you, trying 15 to 20 dishes from the same cookbook.”

From those experiences, the clubs got bigger, and the intricate elements of making it a great party came sharply into focus. With their relocation to Nashville, marriage, and two children later, Potluck was created.

Gray said: “Potluck is positioned with a belief that we can keep people from becoming lonely. We must tackle the foundational reasons why people become lonely and don’t feel like they fit in, have a community, or have friends.”

To discover more: https://www.potluck.us