The original idea behind Brane was all about “purpose driven personal connections,” so I feel it only right to tell you our story from my point of view rather than some over drafted PR document.
The idea behind Brane first came to me when I moved to Melbourne and bought a motorbike. I was living in Southbank and knew very few people, fewer of whom had bikes. I wanted to find people close by I could meet to go on rides with, but found it very difficult even with Melbourne based Facebook groups — everyone seemed too far away, or seemed to reply to a post too late after I had posted it. I came up with the idea to allow people to connect instantly based on a common interest, refined by a location, in real time 1 to 1 and in private.
As I began to scope out the idea with Greg Kodikara, now our CTO, fate, or motorbikes, would deal me another moment of “inspiration.” I came off my bike resulting in an emergency stay at the hospital and a spiral break from my ankle all the way to my knee. One 295mm rod and 11 screws later I found myself at home unable to move, watching a lot of sport and films while everyone else was busy at work or living their lives. I once again wished there was an easy way to connect with people for a quick chat, be it about the game or film I was watching, or just about anything, really.
Sadly, 18 months later I found myself back in hospital, this time with my mother losing her battle with cancer. For those two weeks, and indeed the months following, I desperately wanted to talk to someone, anyone, about anything that didn’t start with “how are you doing?” While I will be forever grateful for all of the support I received during this time, sometimes I just wanted an escape.
But how do we meet people we don’t already know? Facebook is great at keeping in touch with loved ones, but not so great at meeting new like minded people. At that point I knew it was time to get serious and we welcomed out Lead Developer Christian Mengler to the team, who instantly got the idea and was as excited as we were. And then 2020 rolled along, and Covid reminded the world how important the people in your immediate community really were, to support people and businesses around you even if you didn’t know them, and to find activities to pass the time in your 5km lockdown bubbles.
The idea behind Brane has always been to fill that need for connection, to find someone to talk with, for whatever reason — to pass the time, to ask a question, to make a connection, to have a laugh, close by or as far away as relevant, safely, securely.
We are here to help you make that purpose driven personal connection, whatever the purpose. Brane is here, to help you find someone to with.
