by Michael Kane, Economic Development and Public Policy Associate
COLLEGE HILL – Put yourself in the shoes of a college student, you’ve moved in, your parents have left, and you find yourself roaming the halls of your residence hall, trying to figure out what is the best way to interact with friends and family with trivia. For TJ Haigh, a sophomore at the College of the Holy Cross and a StartUp Worcester 2023-24 Company, his answer to that situation was to develop the first gamified social media trivia app. In November 2022, as a Freshman, Haigh envisioned the beginnings of a trivia app, Trivflic, which leverages what 79% of Americans engage in every year, trivia, and allows its users to compete with friends, family and others to become the #1 in the World. “Each day users receive three questions to answer on a related topic, and once they complete the questions, they can post a picture of what they are doing, eating, or who they are with,” said Haigh about the function of the App.
People of all ages can get in on the fun, as questions are specifically tailored to current events, celebrities, or funny themes. “Just the other day we had ‘Will Ferrell Day’, which were questions that were all about the actor, and we broke our record of a number of users.” With the growth in popularity of the app, which has been downloaded across New England and the country, Haigh credits his StartUp Worcester Cohort and Mentors, as well as support from Rob Murner and the team at the Ciocca Center at Holy Cross, Sonia Descormiers at Berkshire Bank, and Zak Dutton of the Venture Forum for its success.
“Doors have opened for me and opportunities to connect with people that I have never expected to have been offered right here in Worcester, said Haigh, on his experience with StartUp Worcester. “Networking with everybody in your class cohort and taking full advantage of connecting with your mentors has absolutely helped. I was matched with Ryan Canuel, CEO of Petricore, but I still communicate regularly with many of the mentors.” Furthermore, at the start of April after winning the Holy Cross “Cross Tank” for the second year in a row, Haigh and Trivflic had to opportunity to pitch the App at the inaugural Woo Tank Intercollegiate Showdown which brought together eight young entrepreneurs from our local colleges and universities to pitch in front of real judges to invest their own money into the students StartUps. On being asked about his experience Haigh said, “I have pitched to judges before, but never to ones like this, who I would have to negotiate back and forth for their money.” “Further, standing up in front of 200ish people is an opportunity that existed in Worcester, and it was a phenomenal experience and opportunity to promote our App.”
On what the future of Trivflic is, Haigh said, “we expect to explore several different opportunities and paths. As Trivflic is easily accessible from your phone you could play it, waiting in line at an amusement park, or during the changing in-between performers at a concert. The end vision is to become the all-in-one trivia solution, now we need to figure out the rest of the details.” Currently, Trivflic is available for download on Apple and Android and is growing in popularity every day. You can visit https://www.trivflic.com/ to learn more about the app and TJ, and follow them on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, and LinkedIn under the name @trivflic.
