#2: UNILUNCHER
The concept of meeting a stranger over an arranged lunch date is novel, though not an entirely new one. Embarking on a quest to find someone new and open to having a chat over a meal can be an unnerving task. For the past year, UniLuncher has been striving to make this challenge easier for the Singapore collegiate community. An online platform run by founder Hakeem, a fourth-year Statistics undergraduate, and his team – Aditi, a Business graduate and Yvonne, a Graduate student, UniLuncher promises to match you up for lunch with a person who shares your interests, across local universities.
Born out of a genuine interest in people and a goal to make university life more meaningful, Hakeem was inspired to create a way to meet others through lunch to simply have a good conversation.
“Being in Science, you’re surrounded by people who are more keen to study, and conversation topics always revolved around school and this module and that module and homework and assignments… I didn’t think that was what University was supposed to be about. I really felt like there’s a whole other big world outside this small little bubble that I was in.” Hakeem says.
In its infant stages, UniLuncher (then called “JustLunch”) saw commendable success, having been initially shared by friends and making its rounds across various Facebook walls. Almost 60 people took part in the first round of lunches. This number doubled after the site made an appearance in a local newspaper, having had a good run for a month before it was interrupted by legal problems over the use of the name “JustLunch” – akin to an existing local dating site of a similar name. A quick name change later, UniLuncher was up and running again.
Despite being relatively young, significant changes have been made in UniLuncher’s operations. Most notably, the platform cannot be used for dating, as matches are made without accounting for the gender of participants.
He shares, “[Gender matching] ended up attracting kind of the wrong crowd – it wasn’t the crowd I wanted UniLuncher to represent or to serve.” Instead of being a weekly affair, UniLuncher now opens its lunch rounds on a more flexible and ad-hoc basis. The team also incorporates themes into the lunch rounds, such as musical lunches.
In addition, more care is taken into documentation and matching. As the platform boasts a steady group of regulars, more care is taken to avoid cases where the same pairs are matched up again.
“It’s a great opportunity for us now to learn things like coding – as a start-up or as a small team, it’s good to have our own knowledge,” says Yvonne.
Students also appear increasingly receptive towards UniLuncher’s objectives. “Initially it only attracted people who were really experimental, and really out for something different. But now that word has spread, there are a lot of people who are telling their friends, and people signed on just for the fun of it,” says Aditi.
She continues, “I think a lot of people think that NUS students are quite reserved, and keep to themselves. But we’ve showed that you can meet a stranger for two hours for the first time and have a really great conversation. It’s really amazing.”
“There are a lot more random people than I thought,” Yvonne quips. “People may look boring and normal on the outside but inside they have lots of ideas and opinions and stuff. I see people slightly differently now.”
“I think nothing will really beat that, when you sit down with a stranger and really have a non-reserved talk,” Hakeem remarks. ”Like you’re just sharing and going with the flow, it’s really nice.”
UniLuncher is not premised on the imperative to make new friends, but rather to settle down for an interesting chat with a stranger with no obligations or promise to follow up after. As Yvonne describes it, it is akin to having a conversation with a stranger on a plane.
“You can have very intense or wonderful conversations, or very interesting and personal conversations with very random strangers,” Yvonne describes. Aditi adds, “Our advice is that just be open about it and you never know what’s going to happen.”
It seems odd that such a culture of free exchange of ideas, and engaging discussion over a plethora of topics ideas concerning life, the universe and everything, does not already exist in an institution as esteemed as a University. Perhaps we cannot find kindred spirits to connect with, but UniLuncher may just be what we need to begin.