Pace Friends

Find walking and running friends!

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Aiming for the following Award Categories

  • RevenueCat Peace Prize (Pace Friends helps build healthier individuals and stronger communities, both physically & mentally, and supports the United Nation Sustainable Development Goals #3 - Good Health & Well Being)
  • Buzziest Launch Award (From social media campaigns to run clubs partnerships to run & walk meetups)
  • Best Vibes Award (Pace Friends was built with the help of vibe coding starting from conceptualization to design to development and marketing.)

Inspiration

When I organized a fun run last year, I realized there wasn’t a single platform that brought together all the amazing run groups out there. I also saw many people on Reddit and Facebook who were looking for walking or running buddies. That gap inspired me to create Pace Friends—a simple way to connect people with potential partners and groups, making fitness less intimidating, more social, and ultimately more enjoyable.

What it does

Pace Friends is an app that connects you with fellow walkers and runners. Get motivated, stay motivated while meeting new people!

How I built it

I vibe coded the app starting from the concept to actually building it. I've used Gemini, Perplexity to help me with the project specifications. Google Stitch for Design. Flutterflow for App Development. For assistance and marketing, I've used Manus, Perplexity, Gemini and ChatGPT. FI, this is the first time I vibe coded app development and I've learned a lot.

Launch Strategy

Since the app depends on having active users in the same area to create meaningful connections, my strategy was to focus on building clusters of users.

To do this, I partnered with local groups in key locations and organized multiple events, which proved effective—I was able to generate 181 downloads, 143 active users, and 38 successful matches in just 10 days.

I also noticed that Pace Friends is starting to organically spread within the running community in the Philippines; I’ve met people I didn’t know who mentioned they had already seen or heard about Pace Friends on social media.

To further boost engagement, I launched the “I made a Pace Friend Today” campaign and raffled off fun run tickets to participants who completed the challenges (see video demo for photos).

Why does the app benefit society

The app plays a valuable role by addressing both individual and community needs.

For individuals, it makes walking and running more approachable by connecting them with buddies who provide support, safety, and motivation—helping people build healthier and more consistent habits.

For communities, it fosters connections, friendships, and stronger social bonds through shared physical activity. Also, when more people walk or run together, it creates safer, livelier spaces and encourages a culture of health and inclusivity.

On a larger scale, it promotes overall wellness, reduces social isolation, and contributes to global public health efforts, aligning with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal #3: Good Health and Well-being.

Challenges I ran into

Weather: It's rainy season in my country and when it rains, no one walks or run. I had to time my launch (or launches) every time the sun is up or it didn't rain.

Flutterflow: Coming from a developer perspective, I need to rewire my process in order to adapt to the process of Flutterflow. There are also limitations with the platform making it harder for other ideas to be implemented.

Admob: I had a challenge in setting up admob since it cannot verify me and need to think of other ways to get verified.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

First time to build an app using Vibe Coding. I never have vibe coded before and this is interesting.

From the 10 days launch, I was able to get 181 downloads, 143 active users, and connected 38 successful matches using Pace Friends. I only promoted the app to people I don't know so only those who are interested will use it.

And this is my first time integrating RevenueCat which is easy to use and is interesting!

What I've learned

I've learned to use different AI tools from conceptualization to design to development to marketing. I've learned how to integrate RevenueCat to my app.

What's next for Pace Friends

Continue promoting the app and see how users are using it. Adding the group feature soon.

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