The Scoop: Cobble is an app that helps friends and couples find and agree on something memorable to do together. Cobble was founded by Jordan Scott after she realized how much she struggled to come up with, and more importantly collaborate on, ideas for things to do with her friends and partner. Cobble users can find things to do, or use their own ideas, to create polls where everyone involved can give their input. Cobble makes group decision-making simpler and quicker than ever.
It brings me no joy to admit I’m the kind of person who replies to the question, “What do you want to do?” with the answer, “What do you want to do?” It’s easy to decide where I want to eat or what I want to do if I’m by myself, but I’m notoriously bad at making decisions when anyone else is involved.
Even though my indecision comes out of a place of trying to be considerate, it can get annoying. It’s unfair to expect everyone else to do the decision-making heavy lifting. If you’re anything like me, you probably need some guidance when it comes to making decisions for you and your friends, family, or partner.
Cobble is here to help. Cobble is an app that makes group decision-making simple with local event listings, curated outing ideas, and a polling feature that allows the whole group to have a say. Jordan Mellul is the Director of Growth Operations at Cobble. He told us about the app and how friend groups, couples, and families can use it to make their quality time happen a little smoother.
“The ethos behind Cobble is to make everyone feel like they’ve been heard in the group decision-making process,” Jordan Mellul said. “The app really plays well to all the personalities that are involved in a decision-making process.’
More Time Together, Less Time Planning
Jordan Mellul told us about the founding story of the app. “Our founder and CEO, Jordan Scott, originally got the idea for Cobble because she was always looking for something new to do with her husband,” Jordan said. Jordan Scott created her blog, idk tonight, to regularly post date night ideas around New York City.
Jordan Scott realized that with her household’s busy schedules and competing expectations, there was more to going out than just coming up with an idea. Jordan realized that most people needed help finding ideas and making those plans a reality.
“Trying to get your significant other or a group of friends to agree on a place involves a lot of back and forth and so many logistics,” Jordan Mellul told us. “You can go into Cobble, find stuff to do, and have everybody give their opinion.”
Cobble’s curated sets of activity ideas feature hand-picked events and happenings around select metro areas in the United States. Cobble has dedicated teams in each of the cities. These teams are made up of locals who know the city and keep their pulse on the best events going on nightly.
Jordan Mellul mentioned that Cobble’s recommendations are only influenced by what their expert teams think will be the most fun and exciting activities. “Our team’s opinions and suggestions are never influenced by payments or sponsorships or anything like that,” he said. “So anything you see in the app, you can organically believe that it’s a good spot or event.”
Cobble’s curated picks are available in New York City, Los Angeles, Miami, Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, and Dallas. Soon, the app will be expanding to San Francisco, Boston, and Philadelphia.
Collaborate With Friends & Dates
If you live in one of these metro areas, Cobble is ready for you and your friends to use. Simply download the app, and then send the link to friends, families, and your significant other so they can download it as well.
Once you open Cobble, you can add folks as Connections and start creating plans. However, even those without the app can participate in voting on the planner’s options. They can create multiple plans at once and keep them all together in the app, making keeping a planner way more simple.
After a user makes a plan, their plan collaborators can start swiping on ideas. It’s like a dating app but for activity ideas. Every person included in the plans swipes through options. Users can use several filters and key search words to find exactly what they are in the mood for, and Cobble will suggest more just like it.
Users can look through curated collections for their city. “Collections are just groups of places that we think kind of go together,” Jordan Mellul explained. “You know, the best ice cream shops in Brooklyn, the tastiest barbeque in Dallas, or whatever it might be. You can look through the collections, and they’ll get ideas flowing about what you want to do.”
Once collaborators have swiped and voted through the plan’s options, the planner can see a summary of the results. Something like “86% of your people chose Spot A.” The planner makes the final decision and Cobble takes care of sending updates to all involved. First, that a choice is made, and then reminders leading up to it.
Cobble Makes Good Times Simpler
Jordan Mellul told us about some updates and expansions coming to Cobble that he’s excited about. “Swiping is a new feature, and we’re excited about that one,” Jordan Mellul said. “We feel swiping makes it more intuitive to people– it’s a familiar interface.”
The team at Cobble is always working to improve the app and make planning easier. Jordan Mellul told us, “We have a new feature coming out that’s like an RSVP feature. Just because you vote on a plan doesn’t necessarily confirm that you’ll be there, so the RSVP feature solidifies who’s showing up.”
While Cobble’s curated collections of activities are only available in select cities, users can use the app no matter where they are. They can open Cobble, add friends and collaborators, and then create their own activity cards for the co-planners to search through. Jordan Mellul explained, “You can still add in any places that you might want to go to, like Joe’s Bar or bowling, and then have everyone vote and RSVP.”
If you’re a person who doesn’t feel like you struggle to make plans, give Cobble a try anyway. Jordan Mellul told us it streamlines planning so effectively many users find it hard to believe they were ever not using Cobble.
“It’s kind of like when Uber showed up on the scene,” Jordan Mellul said. “You know, you can just take a taxi, a taxi does the exact same thing, but with Uber, you press a button, and somebody shows up. It’s the same Cobble. It just makes it so much more simple.”
