Damon Garrett, co-founder of Taylor Ventures Pty Ltd worked in marketing with L'Oréal and global strategy with Samsung before creating Taylor, an events discovery app.

Taylor

Taylor was released in the app store in December. Garrett and co-founder Simon Walker named the app ‘Taylor’, alluding to its purpose but to give it a human element. “We're not trying to be too clever,” explains Garrett, “but we liked the idea of 'tailoring' experiences in a city to someone's interests and availability. We also felt strongly about giving it a person's name. But we're also happy to say we're trending above Taylor Swift in the iTunes App Store already.”

Local – wherever you are

The app identifies where you are and presents events which are happening nearby. Users can also see events in the future to plan trips around. “We're trying to emphasise quality and variety foremost, so when you first open Taylor, you're only looking at 10 events being recommended at any one time,” says Garrett.

People like me

Rather than faceless copywriters, Taylor has gathered key influencers in each city to provide content.

“Taylor is curated by people who we consider to be experts in their field. They make recommendations in their own voice, so it's always personal,” says Garrett. “Over time, we want users to recognise some of the faces they see on Taylor as an extension of their own network. And be reassured that these experts are what we claim them to be, so they are making recommendations based on first-hand experience.”

Melbourne experts include Style Melbourne Editor, Sarah Willcocks and Melbourne foodie aficionado, Jess Ho.

Your calendar

Users can search by specific parameters (date, venue, category) and taylor will also work in sync with their calendar to schedule events.

Mobile

“When I lived in Korea, I used to laugh that mobile phones were referred to as ‘Handy’, which was a slang term for ‘Hand Phone’, suggesting that phones were in fact extensions of our own arms. But of course that really feels like reality even in cities like Sydney and Melbourne today,” says Garrett.

Challenges

Design has been a challenge “We're dealing with data that is quite complex, so being able to convey it simply and elegantly on a 3.5-inch screen is what we've spent a lot of time doing already,” says Garrett

Demographics

“We can see a lot about what types of people are getting the most use from Taylor,” says Garrett. “But this is all demographics, and some of the more valuable feedback is still coming out of conversations, tweets and e-mails. So even in just a few weeks of launch, we were able to see that we'd underestimated the importance of foreign visitors and local expats.”

Taylor is currently only available for iPhone, however an Android version will be created for new markets.