Today we’d like to introduce you to Javier Villarreal.
Javier, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
On December 2nd, 2018, I entered my first Hack-A-Thon hosted at Texas State University along with my classroom programming partners (and close friends) Zoe and Adam. None of us had ever competed in a competition like this before.
The prompt for the competition was “Hello World – Develop A Video Game in 10 Hours”. With novice level experience of game design, the three of us took it as an opportunity to just learn and have fun with each other. We thought it’d be fun to develop a game where you play as a knight, and when the knight bumped into a rock – he’d say “Hello Rock”. When he bumped into a tree – he’d say “Hello Tree”, when he swam in a lake – he’d say “Hello Lake” and when he climbed on top of a mountain – he’d say “Hello World!”. Halfway through the competition, we realized our game was coming together and due to the cheekiness of it – we thought maybe we’d have a shot at winning one of the more creative-type awards.
One hour before the competition was over, I broke the code. The game would not compile. It was a disaster. This was also before we had discovered version control so we were shit out of luck. For class projects, the rule the three of us followed was “you broke it, you fix it”. With little time left, this was a dangerous way of thinking. Zoe, who was by far the most talented developer but also the perfectionist of the group, insisted she needed to continue polishing the assets she was custom creating before the end of the competition.
Zoe and I got into an argument about time constraints. She said the trees she was modeling needed more branches. When I asked how many more branches she needed, she replied “23”. I told her she had 15 minutes to add 23 branches to her tree and then I needed her help debugging the code.
In true college fashion, we fixed and submitted our code with a few minutes to spare. Exhausted, hungry, and annoyed at each other after not taking a single break during the entire 10 hour period, we realized we forgot to submit a team name. When judges came by and asked what our team name was, I replied sarcastically, “23 Branches”.
We won 1st place. It was a big moment. The first real accomplishment I had as a young developer. Despite not knowing what we were doing and just going for it, we won the event. 4 years later I’d go on to found a company by the same name, 23Branches. The name reminds me of Zoe telling me “Shut up and code”, simple advice I’ve come to appreciate as “Focus and figure it out”. It reminds me of a time I was outclassed by people who were “better”. It reminds me that it’s easy to feel like we don’t know what we’re doing – but we know more than we think. This event taught me to trust my gut and to trust my team. To surround myself with people who make me better. This event changed my perspective of what I am capable of and the name stuck with us and the lessons learned from this event are the heart of our company.
This is the story on our company name, 23Branches. The story of Barhop Social started back in December of 2019. We had this idea to pursue an app that helped us find our friends while we were out at bars. It was a fun idea we had while drinking at Chimy’s and over the next month whenever we hung out together – we’d continue day dreaming about creating it. During the COVID lockdown of 2020, I grew restless and began programming the app just to have something to do. It was something I’d work on for a bit, shelve, work on, shelve and never gave it too much thought. One day I was at the bar programming while some other friends worked on homework. The bartender, who knew me as a regular, asked what I was doing. When I told her about my little side project she asked if there could be a way to add specials to the app. She said social media was great, but they didn’t know if it was actually having an impact on their business and it was just kind of “something they do”.
My partner at the time and I figured this was starting to sound like a business. We had a way to monetize! By this point we had graduated and were working our full time jobs. We pitched to Capital Factory, one of the largest VC firms in Texas. We were awarded their Golden Ticket and we went into full networking mode. This was where my first mistake as a young CEO came. While I was focused on “learning how to be a CEO”, I hired a contract software development company that ultimately just stopped working on the project right when we were in the middle of fundraising. The developer had a slew of personal issues and didn’t have the time to program. We were not awarded funding from Capital Factory and were removed from the process after failure to meet deadlines we had set. It was around this time myself and my two other cofounders got laid off. We had so much momentum going into Spring 2023. On. top of the world. It all came to a screeching stop by May. This was a dark time for us. We had failed and missed a massive opportunity. My cofounders ultimately agreed to leave the company. I feel into an awkward position. I need to keep Barhop updating, we had users. But I didn’t have time to program. I also didn’t have a lot in savings. But I had enough to pay a contract developer to help me fix a few things that were causing issues. So I hired another development group to focus on development while I worked full time and talked to clients / users at night. During this time, I met and the Assistant General Manager of a killer bar located in San Marcos. I brought him on as my cofounder because I needed to regain control of the company and I desperately needed someone to help me manage the clients.
Unfortunately, right as things were going our way we were taken advantage of again by another development group.
I am thankful I still own 100% of my company but to any young founders out there – you really are swimming with sharks. To any young CEOs who are also the “Technical” Founder – keep your hands on the code. Find someone to help you do the “business side” and focus on the technical until you have the funds raised or earned to get a full time developer.
Especially when you have a product so many people find interesting. It will attract attention from great people, but also from people who are looking to take advantage of how naive you are.
After a few months of finding our way, we are now stable and back on our feet with the reigns in our control. We fairly recently added a new feature to our application – the Angel Shot! The Angel Shot allows users to message bar staff anonymously to report inappropriate behavior. We’re hoping this increases the safety of our users on their night out.
In addition to this initiative and new pledge to increasing the safety of our users, we are also partnering with non-profits in the area and donating a portion of all profits from Barhop to give back to at-risk communities to make the communities we operate in, a safer and better place.
Our story is one with a lot of twist and turns. After a very rocky (and dramatic) first two years, I am very happy with how far we’ve come and proud of our resilience and ability to regain our footing. If anyone would like to hear more, my DMs are open. Always excited to talk about what we’re doing here at 23Branches and Barhop Social.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Hell no. If I knew how difficult this was going to be I don’t think I would have started. There are a lot of people who will try and take advantage of you. I don’t think these people meant to take advantage of us, but more opportunistically take advantage given how naive we were.
Another struggle is just managing relationships. With your businesses partners and your friends. With your business partners, you have a deep commitment to each other and spend so much time together and so much energy on what you’re building. You have to have a strong relationship with your cofounders and have the ability to have difficult conversations, often. I am thankful that with all my cofounders, current and previous, we have an incredible relationship and handled things very smoothly. But I have heard horror stories about this not being the case for others. Learning how to manage time for family friends is incredibly difficult as well when you work all day to pay your bills and all night to build your dream. Business owners are the only people who will work 80 hours so they don’t have to work 40.
Raising money is incredibly difficult, getting clients to take you seriously is incredibly difficult when you’re so young, starting up, and have little to no resources. But I’ve learned most people are good. And most people want to help you. You just need to know how to ask them.
Personally, my biggest struggle would be self doubt. I think this is common with young founders. Imposter syndrom is real. If there’s anything I’ve learned about young founders it’s that we are our own biggest critic. We have to keep ourselves accountable because no one else is going to and we have to hold ourselves to a higher standard because we are setting the standard for the company. For me, this has come easy in my “typical” jobs. But it can be really hard to get out of bed and work so hard to build something from nothing. Especially when things are tough. Resilience is a must.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
What should we know? What do you do, what do you specialize in / what are you known for?
23Branches developed a social media application known as “Barhop Social”. BarHop Social is a mobile app for adults 18+ that helps friends find each during bar and nightlife outings. It enables users to easily find their friends, discover nearby bars and drink specials, and prioritize safety — all for an optimal barhopping experience. We strive to bring people together and streamline the nightlife experience.
For bar owners / bar managers – you are able to push notifications and specials directly to users who are out and about in your area so you are marketing DIRECTLY to users who are already out spending money and looking for things to do. If you would like to connect your personal Barhop Social account to your bars account, reach out to us on social media or our website. We would be happy to connect your personal account to your business account.
What is something we’d like to be known for?
I’d like us to be known for making a positive impact on the communities we’re in. I want to be known as the type of company who makes changes where it matters. Whether at be in our software, or our community.
What sets you apart from others?
Aside from our technology which I believe is incredibly powerful and is improving daily to provide an optimal user and client experience, I would say our community of users. Our users have been so supportive of us. We get great user feedback, advice, input. Honestly, it’s what keeps me going. When I’m at an event and I run into a user using our product, asking them about it and hearing how much they love it – it really makes my week.
I remember one day my partner couldn’t make it to table with me at a bar. Usually two of us table at bars because we draw a crowd and it can be a lot to manage. A girl came up and asked what I was doing, I gave her the pitch and she downloaded the app. 30 minutes later she came back SO excited. She looked like she had discovered gold. She was asking questions and telling me how great of a product we had. When another guy came up to the table to see what was going on, he asked “what is this” and SHE pitched the app. We had a user that was so thrilled with what we had created she because evangelical about it. That was one of the coolest moments of my life. I work hard because we have users like that who are so supportive of what we are building.
I need to give us more credit than I do, I believe we have a great community because we really do value and put them first. And I think that reflects in their response to us. When we first created the app, it was not very impressive. But we’ve developed a relationship with our users and they know if something isn’t working correctly, or they want it to work differently, they want something added – we will do anything to make that happen and bring them a better experience. We are building such a great and supportive community but I believe it is because we have such a great and supportive team.
What are you most proud of brand wise?
Our commitment to doing the right thing. Barhopping is such a privilege. I have had an incredibly eye opening year. Personally, this has been the toughest year of my life and it has changed my world view. My cofounder and I have agreed to donate a portion of all Barhop profits to non-profits in the communities we operate in. I am very proud of this initiative.
What do you want our reader to know about you brand, offerings, services, etc?
If you want to discover things to do or new places to explore – use Barhop! We can help you discover places with the best espresso martinis, live music, pool tables, that are dog friendly, and more! Tell your friends about the Angel Shot! Safety is so important when we are out barhopping. Being able to chat anonymously with bar staff to report inappropriate behavior can be such a powerful tool. Give us feedback! Whether it be in the app and upgrading our services or helping under served people in our community, we will find ways and resources to help! If you work for or know of any non-profits who are doing great and interesting things, we’d love to talk about partnerships and learning how we can help others.
What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
Learn to understand how everything works. Even if you think it doesn’t apply to you or your company. Just try to understand everything. From how things work on a mechanical and technical level to understanding others viewpoints. Increase your ability to think critically and question yourself constantly, but trust yourself when you need to.
You’d be surprised how industries that could not be more different, have similar issues or have principles that can be applied across industries. How many peope who think they disagree, actually believe the same thing. You can learn so many valuable skills and lessons from so many great leaders if you just ask them questions and allow yourself to question why you’re approaching a problem a certain way.
Let people talk about themselves and absorb everything, surround yourself with people who know more than you and just ask them questions constantly and keep learning.
Pricing:
- Free!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://barhop.social/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/barhopsocial/
Image Credits
Abigail McCoy
