Howya
The app for people who love to have a good time.
I wish I could bottle the energy of Michael Tones and Jason Van Dyk, founders of Howya the app. I don’t think I’ve ever met two businessmen as passionate and enthusiastic as this duo. Naturally, I had to call them up to tell their story–so I sat down over a cup of coffee with the two masterminds behind the app to chat about their journey, and we covered it all: the good, the bad, the lockdowns, the setbacks, the triumphs and tribulations–and of course, the plans for the future of Howya.
If you haven’t heard about Howya yet–then you’ve probably been hiding under a rock. Come on! Howya is an event-based app that offers a platform where anyone can find or host an event that suits their interest. Anywhere, Anytime. Its sole purpose is to connect hosts and attendees to events that pique their interest. From yoga classes to music festivals, paint parties and beer pong competitions, to skate competitions and wine tastings. You name it.
Developing an event-focused app is no easy feat especially when you’re not expecting a global pandemic to send shock waves through the world and of course keep us athome and far away from socializing. After chatting with Michael and Jason, it became clear to me that their journey to get them to where they are now was nothing short of eventful.
Howya was merely a concept that Michael and Jason had once spoken about. In October 2019–Mike was living, studying and working in Brisbane, Australia and whileJason was working full-time in Johannesburg. “One day I gave Jason a call because I was super bummed about my other business ideas that were just not working in Australia. So, I reminded Jason about the idea and told him about the huge market I had at my fingertips, Jason was immediately on board. We were excited about the concept of bringing Australian students together through an app to assist with study groups, hangouts, events etc.”, Mike explains. “I told Mike that if he was serious about this, I would quit my job that day to dive straight into this idea”, Jason interjects. And so,he did. He worked tirelessly on building out a business plan that Mike could show to a team of developers in Australia, and by the time Mike woke up the next morning, he had a fully-fledged business proposal waiting in his inbox, ready for presentation. “The best thing about Jason and I is that we follow through with everything we say if we’re serious about it”, Mike laughs, “We don’t waste any time!
Within a few days, the guys had secured an app development team to start working on the technical side, while they began building partnerships and relationships in Brisbane with the various universities. When they noticed that there wasn’t much progress on thedev side, they grew frustrated with the delays, and Jason decided to take it upon himself to learn how to code–and before he knew it–he was doing all the coding for the app to speed up the process.
The guys were ready to go to market and launch the app with all the universities in Brisbane. However, through a series of very unfortunate events, conflicts with the Australian development team, the loss of Mike’s father and a global lockdown whichshut Mike out of Australia–Howya was at a complete halt and standstill, and they couldn’t launch their product in Australia–as they intended to.But they didn’t give up. They had faith in their idea and continued to work on the product. They partnered with Msizi James-DJ, MC and all-round “connector”. “We love working with Msizi, he’s passionate about Howya and people, so he’s a great asset to our business”, Mike says fondly. Towards the end of 2020, they felt ready to launch.They ran a “win a trip to Cape Town with your friends” for the launch of the app on social media–which went viral. The winners were announced, and all plans for the launch weekend were in full swing. Michael and Jason, set forth for Cape Town for the grand launch, “this is when things went south pretty quickly”, Mike explains.So where did it all go pear-shaped? Well, the original venue they had rented out cancelled on them last minute, the second venue they found wasn’t big enough, the contest winners were arriving imminently, and while this was all going down, Mike and Jason were shooting music videos in between trying to source a new venue–with less than 24 hours to go before the event. “It was chaotic”, Mike recalls. Finally, they found the perfect venue, paid and secured it and ticked that stress off the list. “If you think that was it, our development team told us that the app wasn’t ready to be downloaded, on the day of our Beta Launch. So, the launch in Cape Town ended up being a brand launch–which had a great turnout–but we were disappointed that we weren’t ready for the users to use the app yet”, Mike explains
Cue in more lockdowns and more restrictions come the close of 2020 and most of 2021,the guys had to relook at what they could do with getting their app off the ground, whilst still honouring their values: which essentially was providing a platform for people to list their events and for people to be safe and have a good time. Call it the wrong timing, if you will.“In hindsight this time where we were restricted allowed us to focus on what truly mattered. We took a lot of time fine-tuning the app, focused on brand development and building relationships and partnerships–which was a blessing in disguise”, Mike reminisces.
“We’ve put everything we have into this app because we believe in it that much. We’ve self-funded this whole process ourselves which allows us to honour our core values”,Jason explains. “You’re literally funding your dream”, Mike continues.“We want Howya to be the go-to app for you to consult when you’re sitting at home alone and bored. We want our users to click on the app and find an event or a community that ultimately becomes their own”, Mike explains. “We’re not just trying to make money, we’re creating solutions”, says Jason.This is just the tip of the iceberg for the Howya boys, they excitedly told me that after almost a three-year wait, they are finally launching in Australia soon, and soon they will be taking over the world.
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Howya topped the charts and made it to the 9th place on the App Store in South Africa–a true testament to how much blood, sweat and tears went into making Howya a great success.
