Alumna creates social media couch surfing app
A mobile app called Su Sofá aims to change the way people travel. The app, which connects travelers with hosts via networks of Facebook friends, was created by Vivi Wu, a USC alumna, and Shem Weissman, a graduate of California State University, Long Beach.
Described as a “safe way to travel with friends,” the app allows users to offer to host prospective travelers or to seek out a place to stay, all within one’s Facebook network. In the language of a press release, “nobody is a stranger on Su Sofá.”
“I don’t like to travel by myself, but I travel a lot, and it can be awkward to try to call up each of my friends and ask if I can stay with them,” Wu said in an email to the Daily Trojan. “So Shem and I think if we can build a network where everyone is interested, [it] will provide a great service for people who travel frequently.”
In addition to Wu’s search for places to stay with friends, Weissman has been no stranger to offering friends a couch to sleep on. Weissman’s background in online marketing and e-commerce combines with Wu’s financial and management knowledge to create an effective team aiming to change the way people travel.
“Ultimately, our goal is to be able to offer people an alternative way to travel,” Weissman said. “If you [use] Airbnb or [Couchsurfing.com] or something like that and you’re staying with strangers, it’s OK and I’m sure the people are decent. But if you can go and hang out with your real friends, that’s going to be a great experience.”
Wu expressed concerns regarding the safety of staying with strangers.
“I would rather be by myself in a hotel than staying with a stranger at their house,” Wu said.
The app aims to fill a need not met by other services or by hotels. To Weissman and Wu, individually asking friends on Facebook for a place to stay “seems a little impractical.”
“We think this is a way to really concentrate that whole process. Everyone with the app already has an interest in this, and it brings all these people to one place,” Weissman said.
Though Weissman says the project, which launched on Jan. 16, is at its “very beginning” now, it is undergoing continual development. He says the application has seen “good engagement” so far.
In the long term, Su Sofá aims to offer complementary travel services through its mobile application alongside the main host-matching system. As an example, Weissman proposed offering discounted airline tickets for locations that users had expressed an interest in visiting.
For now, though, the duo hopes to gain traction for their service on college campuses, starting with USC.
“My time at USC was a party!” Wu said. “Not a party filled with alcohol and skipping class, but a party filled with great friends and incredible experiences that will stay with me a lifetime. With Su Sofá, we feel we can provide that same USC party experience to everyone.”
Weissman said that while they’re starting at USC, they hope that the app will continue to grow from there.
“You have friends from all over the country [with whom] you went to high school,” Weissman said, “and now you’re all spread out, so this might be an opportunity. You have spring break coming up. You can find your friends through [the app] and stay together again.”