Five years ago, when Miles “Deuce” McBride moved to New York as a 20-year-old rookie to play for the Knicks, he felt overwhelmed by the transition to the big city and struggled to find the right audience.
“When I got here, everyone on my team was either married and had kids or just lonely people,” he told TechCrunch, recalling his early feelings of isolation as the team’s youngest player. “I wish there was a way to meet people with the same interests organically. I feel like everyone is so superficial on social media.”
Recognizing a common struggle among many 20-somethings, McBride teamed up with veteran startup founder Joe Einhorn to create Mmotion, an app that combines elements of location tracking with social discovery features. The app helps people find new friends based on shared interests, while also recommending nearby bars, restaurants, and other social hotspots.
The app, currently in beta for users in New York City, differs from traditional friendship platforms like Bumble BFF and instead competes more directly with apps like Snap Map and Find My. Instagram also recently entered this space with a new map feature. (Mmotion’s beta version is limited to 1,000 members.)
Mmotion uses geofencing and state tracking to track your movements and highlight people with similar interests nearby. It also tracks where you go and recommends similar places that are worth exploring. Additionally, users get a private log of all their location history, which acts like a personal timeline, making it easy to look back at all the spots you’ve explored.
To access Mmotion, users must apply for membership. Once approved, you can enter your interests, join “circles” or groups that interest you (such as those focused on hiking, attending basketball games, visiting art galleries, etc.), and send friend requests to others nearby. This app also provides private messaging between users.
Because we prioritize your safety, our app includes encrypted location data that only you can access unless you choose to share it. Users are in incognito mode by default, which Mmotion calls “Vault mode” and can be switched at any time.
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Additionally, if users wish to have their location known only to specific individuals on the app, Mmotion offers a feature called “personas.” This feature allows users to create up to three separate groups, allowing them to share private locations, such as their home address, with selected groups while maintaining a more public persona.
“So Miles might have (his ‘Deuce’ persona). He’s a public figure, so it’s a little more selective. So it’s for all the Knicks fans to see Miles go to places that mainstream people are okay with knowing. And then he might have (his persona) for when he goes to another city. He wants to be really low-key,” Einhorn explained.
Standard safety and management tools such as blocking and reporting are also implemented.
The app works on a monthly subscription model for users. Exact pricing details were not disclosed, but Einhorn hinted that it would be affordable, saying, “It’s not going to be more than a cup of coffee a month. It’s not going to be a crazy amount.”
Premium options may also be available that provide additional features. For example, at the basic level, users can only join five circles at a time per city.
Another aspect of the app is its services for local businesses. Mmotion aims to promote small businesses by putting restaurants, bars, coffee shops, fitness studios, and more on a map while providing insights into their customer base. This app aggregates data from various sources such as Google, OpenStreetMap, and Apple Maps.
Mmotion’s long-term vision is to encourage businesses to sign up to a subscription service that provides access to anonymized analytics. This service helps businesses effectively target the right customers.
In addition to subscription fees, the app makes money through advertising.
The launch marks McBride’s first time as a startup founder, putting him in line with other athletes who have transitioned into entrepreneurship. Einhorn, on the other hand, is best known as the founder and CEO of Fancy, a social e-commerce platform that competes with Pinterest. Last year, he also launched a luxury goods startup called Long Story Short.
Mmotion plans to release it more broadly in the near future once we receive enough feedback from testers. Currently available for download on iOS and Android devices.
