Let’s be clear: technology is part of the problem. It’s also part of the solution. 

Swiping can’t replace real connection. 

Hiding behind DM’s doesn’t make better people. 

In a world that is more connected than ever before, we can’t forget about the place where the deepest and richest connection happens: in person.

My name is Michael and my name is Stuart. We started Mesh with a simple vision: to give people an avenue to meet new people faster and easier. 

The idea started out really simple and was almost forgotten. Michael was sitting in his dining hall in college and was curious why people were eating alone. Were they choosing it? Surely not everyone. So the idea “App that lets you say you want to eat a meal with someone random,” was born. 

Stuart and Michael met each other in the first semester of their sophomore year at Saint Louis University (2021). They were at a random event hosted by SLU, and they got along right away. Their first idea was to bring Chick-fil-A back on campus. 

Stuart and Michael ended up going on a spring break trip later that year with two other guys. They were all going through each other's notes pages, and Stuart saw that simple idea that almost got lost. He was intrigued and started asking questions and eventually came to the conclusion that he could build it. 

The rest of the trip, that was all he talked about. The idea expanded and was more fleshed out to be an app that connects four people instead of two so that it’s less awkward, more safe, and if one person drops out you still have a great connection! 

A couple of weeks later, the name BeYou was born and quickly killed when beReal became popular. A couple of days later, Stuart says, “Mesh.” Michael says no, he doesn’t like it. Slowly, the name grew on Michael, and Mesh was born. 

Stuart started a couple of mockups and tried out building Mesh in Swift. In December 2022, Michael and Stuart started to code it in react native. They eventually decided that dependencies made React not the framework to build Mesh in. In January 2023, they hit the ground running and launched the MVP of Mesh to the app store in March. 

Where is Mesh now?

You guys told us you wanted it to be as simple as possible. 

Now, you sign up using this short form: https://q38b2a3usyo.typeform.com/meshlocal. Signing up is easy. All we need is your name, phone number, and email. Take a short personality test. We will never spam you. We secure your data through Google. 

We text you an invite once a week to a local coffee shop. If you respond yes, we pair you in a group of four. Respond no if you want to try another week! Our inspiration was that friend who is always inviting you to great events or the one person in the group chat who is always texting “wanna hang out.”

We are small but mighty. We are dedicated to real connection with you at the heart of it, not profit. People in Madison and Saint Louis are making a difference in this world. We have hundreds of people signed up for our weekly texts.