It sounds to me like you've done everything that is in your control. Stop beating yourself up about the aspect that you have very little influence over (the app

It sounds to me like you've done everything that is in your control. Stop beating yourself up about the aspect that you have very little influence over (the app becoming popular) You designed, built & shipped the shell of a social network. Now you have an empty db that once filled will be useful, interesting and used by a lot of people. Now you've got to find the events and go some way towards populating your database to show to your early adopters that your concept works. You've got several options. a) Seek out other event agregators where open invitations are ok. See if you can get a stream of data into your app from events that are already taking part in these places. Speak to a few University groups, get them to try it out in a larger focus group. Get them to post their social gatherings up on the app, to gauge their longer term feedback. If they keep using it, great! b) Contact other founders that have had similar chicken & egg issues. Ask for their advice. Implement & test any insights they give you. c) Turn the tables round slightly. It seems your app users are looking for a hangout they can join. Why not prompt your users to create their own first and be the 'host' instead of expecting there to be ones they can join. Maybe you make it so they HAVE to host one before they get to join others in the future? d)Try to team up with some open invitation events, perhaps event ticketed events may fit in. Fundraisers, sports events etc even if it doesn't fit your 'personal hangout' criteria. It shows you've done your best to populate the database. Who knows, if you joined up with Startup Weekends or a wide spread event, you may even get a sponsor! e) Find ways to integrate posting to Grooovy as part of other social networks. This could involve all tweets @grooovy with the #hangout and city being auto added to the app. You could try this manually first. The hosts don't actually need to have the app, they just need to share their event information with you so your searchers can join in. I think you've come 90% of the way and are reeling from the shock that you 'built it' but they didn't come (yet). You haven't fallen at the last hurdle. You just need to find new & inventive ways to jump it! Be sure to update us on your progress!