Hidden Gems: Meet Monte Applewhite of GoSayHELLO App & The GoSayHELLO Foundation

Today we’d like to introduce you to Monte Applewhite.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I’ve always been a problem solver. So I went to North Carolina A&T, the same school my father attended, to major in Mechanical Engineering.

After college, I worked in corporate for 10 years as a Safety and Health professional. When the pandemic hit, I was introduced to Web 3.0 and wanted to use it to solve the problems related to social distancing and close proximity networking.

When the pandemic hit, we were all introduced to social distancing. For our safety, we stayed 6-feet apart from one another and became more dependent on technology than ever before. As a father to a four-year-old daughter, I was dependent on Alexa/Siri to babysit and entertain her as I attended my corporate meetings. During this time, I noticed my daughter becoming more technologically savvy. However, I also noticed her social skills declining. I would take her to the nearby park to let her practice saying hello to make a new friend by simply walking over to introduce herself.

I wanted to create a social tool my daughter could use someday. These situations and more sparked my passion for improving close-proximity “face-to-face” networking opportunities for the next generation while social distancing. GoSayHELLO App, founded in April 2021, was started to make every event a networking event. GoSayHELLO incentivizes engagement and sparks conversations amongst introverts at events, parks, business expos, conferences, and apartment communities.

Today, GoSayHELLO App has the support of over 80+ investors and is a major grant recipient of the Algorand Foundation, a blockchain-related non-profit based in Singapore.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Our major challenge will be maintaining growth without promoting continuous content consumption. Most social media platforms are making us anti-social and only concerned about increasing users’ time on the platform through content consumption. The reason being is that there is huge profits with keeping users engaged and continuously consuming content on the platform. However, our goal is to generate “good” profits that are for the benefit of society as a whole.

We’ve been impressed with GoSayHELLO App & The GoSayHELLO Foundation, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Our solution to close-proximity networking is our GoSayHELLO App technology. In addition, we also plan to use profits to further increase community action through The GoSayHELLO Foundation. The foundation’s mission is “to connect new residents and transplants to their communities’ for-benefit (non-profit) events and operate as a conduit for new residents seeking ways to network while volunteering in their new community.”

GoSayHELLO App sponsors various events in the city. During BET Awards Weekend, we sponsored the Hip Hop Conference powered by 2HotRadio and hosted by DJ Envy. At our sponsored events, users are able to utilize the GoSayHELLO App to network, engage, earn $HELLO, and spend with our growing lists of partnerships for products, services, and/or discounts. One of our first food vendor partnerships was with Harlem Eatz. GoSayHELLO users are able to earn enough $HELLO to purchase a Harlem Eatz taco upon initial sign-up.

We also curate the GoSayHELLO Podcast where we have 2 series: the “Every Woman” series hosted by Aaminah and Blu and “Krown Talk” hosted by Nesha Nycee) that promote storytelling, networking, and community action. A few people that have premiered on the GoSayHELLO Podcast are Elijah Wade (curator of Paint-N-Sit ATL), Shar Bates (community activist and founder of Breaking The Chains).

Lastly, we curated a live music recording networking session called the “GoSayHELLO Sessions” where we invited over 40 artists to Outkast’s Stankonia Studios for 8 days to curate a compilation project through networking and great vibes. Thank you to everyone that participated: Joe Ayinde, American Will, Nesha Nycee, NHYN, Sobhhi, Geezy, Dolo, Kemani, Tabius Tate, Blu, Lelo Mike, Zack Baker, Boy Lucca, Purpl Kane, Lani, Deuce, DY Kingz, DJ Superstar, K, Lyfe, Reese, Karega, Kourtlynn, Devin, Renegade, Aaminah, Calvin, and everyone else that came out to support. The final project produced from these sessions currently does not have a release date but we are excited for everyone to witness the power of networking through music. For anyone reading this far, we decided to “leak” a clean version of the project via the private Soundcloud link below. Let us know which song is your favorite. Enjoy!

Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
I would rate my risk taking as medium-high. I definitely take calculated risks. One of my biggest risks was selling my house when the housing market was at an all-time high and using the capital gains to support the bootstrapping of GoSayHELLO. I have become a minimalist in many ways. Risk-taking is part of the game; however, the potential gains far exceed the potential losses.

Pricing:

• FREE to download now

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/GoSayHELLOApp
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/GoSayHELLOApp/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/GoSayHELLOApp
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0n013VMimMRJyYT_HblA5A/videos
• SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/gosayhello/sets/gosayhello-sessions-album-clean/s-ueRktnLZL8K?si=f1d3527c45944edf9c8428aa3db8680a&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing
• Other: https://testflight.apple.com/join/xmzRPDk4