By Tom Noda
As an entrepreneurship student at the University of Sto. Tomas (UST), Ron Baetiong knew early on that the subject of his college thesis was commercially viable.
But the people around him, including his teachers, weren?t so enthusiastic about his app, which targets club hoppers or party-goers. ?[They] thought I was crazy with this idea,” Baetiong recalled.
Undeterred, Baetiong went on to form Guestlist.ph, which eventually became one of the local start-ups incubated by Globe Telecom’s startup accelerator Kickstart Ventures. Last year, Kickstart provided seed funding to Guestlist.ph.
Now, the newly launched app has 28,000 active members and is attempting to revolutionize the local “night life? scene.
Available for iOS and Android devices, the app was introduced recently in a party held at the Imperial Ice Bar in Bonifacio Global City, led by Baetiong who serves as his company?s CEO.
“Partying made easy has been our main objective. We want to cater to the needs of our growing Web-based and smartphone-based market, and offer more rewards to our app users,” Baetiong said.
Baetiong highlighted the app’s new Gold VIP Membership feature, which allows party-goers unlimited access to the most popular and biggest clubs in Manila for as low as P499. Users may download the app on Google Playstore for free and register via Facebook.
The Gold VIP membership offers various durations that users can avail of, like one month, three months, six months and even a year with a corresponding amount.
And like a real VIP, members may avail of unlimited access to Guestlist.ph’s partner clubs in South Manila anytime they want, even beyond the cut-off period.
Gold VIP members may also tag along their friends and avail of free drinks in selected clubs.
The VIP Membership also comes in two other packages, the Silver VIP and the Platinum VIP. The former gives an access pass to all clubs in North of Manila, while the latter allows an all-access to all clubs featured on Guestlist.ph plus exclusive parties like raves and concerts.
Baetiong said they are planning to add more features with the mobile app such as “Bottle Service” that would allow app users to buy drinks before they go to the club, “Table Reservations” which would allow users to book tables and chip in with their friends, and “Party Rewards” where app users can earn party points giving them more privileges.
“The release of Guestlist.ph mobile app has made partying easy, automated, and hassle-free. But we have more upcoming features in store for all partygoers and we are very excited to launch them this year,” Baetiong said.