An entrepreneur in every sense of the word, Harry Raymond ’11 is developing what could be the next big thing to hit Apple’s app store. His dual passion for tech and drinking has re-sulted in Shindig, a mobile drink journal that is expected to launch later this year.

The initial idea for Shindig can be traced back to spring 2010, when Raymond spent his semester abroad in London. Eager to explore the city and to meet new people, he quickly discovered the best way to do so was in pubs and caf?es.

“I become infatuated with British culture, and even wrote my travel-writing portfolio on British pubs and bartenders,” Raymond said. “But trying all these drinks and meeting so many new people presented a problem. I couldn’t capture the memories, especially the taste ones.”

Not wanting to carry a physical drink journal everywhere he went, Ray-mond saw an opportunity in the digital space, which became even clearer when he began working in technology after graduation.

“After I started doing social media market-ing and got involved in the New York tech scene, I realized the power of mobile and how there was so much opportunity in mobile space. So I went out and decided to build my own decision,” Raymond said.

With the help of a web designer and developer, who are also co-founders of the project, Raymond has spent months creat-ing Shindig, “a drink journal that learns your taste and helps you discover new drinks.”

“A drink journal sounds trivial, but we are all confident that the interest graph is the next frontier in the digital space. Learning our taste interests will be a powerful part of a smarter world,” Raymond said. “We want to start small by solving a small but universal problem, ‘what the hell was the name of that drink?'”

Raymond and his co-founders have been working for the past few months out of co-working communities and even coffee shops in New York City. Shindig has recently been released to testers, and will soon be featured on the website Kickstarter, a funding platform that will raise cash for the team.

“We’ve been doing a lot of weekend and night hack-a-thons, but we want to get to the point where we’re all working in the same room,” Raymond said. “We’re looking for-ward to launching this campaign, and I know the Colgate community will help out.”

The Colgate network has already been a valuable resource for Raymond along the way.

“I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how many Colgate people are part of the New York tech scene,” Raymond said. “You never think of Colgate as a tech hub, but I think the liberal arts education provides a great foundation to enter any business. Every Colgate alum I’ve talked to has been more than welcome to help me out. They’ve connected me to investors and have offered great advice.”

In addition to creating his own app, Raymond has also begun to organize meet-ups for the group NYC Mo-bile Apps, which has been a great way to meet people with similar interests.

“One thing that Colgate taught us is how to interact with different types of people, which is socially pretty good. I knew that I had to meet people in the tech space and get involved in community. So I started going to a lot of meet-ups, and met a lot of friends that way,” Raymond said.

“Now I co-organize NYC Mobile Apps. We host monthly meet-ups where three or four New York startups present what they’re passionate about and what they’re working on,” Raymond said. “We’ve had startups like Tumblr and Spotify and dozens of other people who are trying to de-velop something. It’s been such a wonderful expe-rience seeing the community grow, and being with people suffering through the same growing pains.”

Connecting with people both inside and out of the Colgate network has been a key to Raymond’s success with Shindig, and is some-thing he recommends all recent graduates take advantage of.

“My advice: grab a beer or coffee with as many people as you can. It doesn’t matter if you have a job or not, you just need to constantly connect with people,” Raymond said. “You’ll be amazed at how many people are willing to meet with you or are willing to help you along the way.”

Contact Andrea Hackett at [email protected].