Planning a social life always begins with the best of intentions. But if it’s the end of the work week and you have to scroll through pages of things to do so you can find something you like, odds are you might end up on the couch with your Roku remote in one hand and a stiff drink in the other.
Shuflix, an app created by brothers Serg, Javier and Rolando Masís, is looking to revamp the process of finding social activities to do so you can enjoy going out and about again.
The concept for Shuflix came from a personal struggle endured by Serg. While living in the bustling city of San José, Costa Rica, he often found pinning down things to do a chore. He had to sift through seemingly endless lists of boring activities online or in the paper. Then, Serg noticed that every so often, he’d stumble upon something great – completely by accident. 
When Serg voiced his wish for an app that would simulate this recreational happenstance to his brothers, they encouraged him to pursue it full-time and jumped onboard. Fast-forward a year to today and Shuflix has participated in two accelerator programs – one at Yale and one at the Harvard iLab – having just released its beta iOS app, with the droid version coming within the next couple of weeks.
Here’s how Shuflix works: Once you open the app up to its home screen, you give your phone a shake and it generates a randomized list of activities within whatever radius you set as your default. Don’t like what you see? Just give your phone another shake and it will give you whole new list of things to do nearby.
“It makes a process that’s very complicated simple, but also quick,” Serg told us. “It helps people find things they didn’t know exist, that they love, that they can explore.”
You can make your suggestions more personalized to your taste by filtering the results by category (education and culture, sports and rec, nightlife or food and restaurants). And people with children can hit a button for family-friendly suggestions.
As you look at your shortlist of activities and events to do in your city, you can also swipe through the ones you don’t like or the ones you want to add to your bucket list for later. According to Rolando, Shuflix can assess what you don’t like, determine a pattern and stop showing you activities like it.
Shuflix works anywhere in the world, as it pulls information from the internet to create its lists. The team has already seen users find activities in cities like Oslo, Norway, and Melbourne, Australia. However, they’re hoping to acquire a large number of users in Boston.
“Basically, we’re using Boston as our launchpad. We may have launched around the world, but this is where our test kitchen is,” Javier said.
The brothers have been bootstrapping up until this point, but are now starting to look for investors. They’re exploring multiple revenue streams to create a sustainable model, including paid premium features that are to be developed and advertisements.
Images via Shuflix.
