Is it happy days for location-based apps again? We’re getting back to some kind of normal and apps for places, travel, restaurants, hikes, flights, hotels, beaches, and bookshops are back in action. Today we chat with a super-interesting location-based app called Bimble, which is “counter-mapping” the planet … finding all the cool places that aren’t big on Google Maps and highlighting the small wonders of the world. In this episode of Mobile Heroes Uncensored we chat with Julia Mallaby and Fatima Zaidi of Bimble. They launched 3 weeks before lockdown … but survived COVID! And now they’re doing better than ever. We chat about: Building the ‘Spotify of Travel’ Filling the upper funnel of app users Engaging existing users Building buzz via TikTok influencers Creating emotional connection that drives retention Building real community Enjoy! Timestamps 0:00 Happy days for location-based apps? 2:30 Sharing the places you love 3:50 Starting a location app during Covid 5:30 Post-Covid growth 7:57 Sharing playlists of places 9:36 Brand ambassadors via TikTok influencers 12:00 Two classes of users 14:30 Connecting to influencers 17:04 Attracting creators to your app 18:30 ‘Counter-mapping’ the world … via Ukraine 23:30 Growth via emotional connection