New York Knicks guard Miles "Deuce" McBride has ventured into the tech world, co-founding Mmotion, a new friendship app designed to help users connect organically based on shared interests and location. The inspiration for the app stemmed from McBride's own experience five years ago when, as a 20-year-old rookie, he found the transition to New York City overwhelming and struggled to find a social circle that resonated with him.
“When I got up here, everybody on my team was married with kids or just kind of loners,” McBride told TechCrunch, reflecting on his initial feelings of loneliness as the youngest player. “I wish there was a way to meet people organically who have the same interests. I feel like with social media, everybody is so superficial.”
Mmotion: Bridging the Social Gap
Recognizing a common challenge for many young adults navigating new cities, McBride partnered with seasoned startup founder Joe Einhorn to develop Mmotion. The app uniquely blends location tracking with social discovery features, enabling users to find new friends who share their interests while also recommending nearby bars, restaurants, and other social hotspots.
Currently in beta for a limited 1,000 users in NYC, Mmotion aims to differentiate itself from traditional friendship platforms like Bumble BFF. Instead, it positions itself as a direct competitor to location-sharing apps such as Snap Map and Find My, a space recently entered by Instagram's new Map feature.
Key Features and User Experience
Mmotion utilizes geofencing and state tracking to monitor user movements, highlighting individuals with similar interests nearby. It also logs visited locations to recommend new, relevant spots. Users maintain a private log of their location history, serving as a personal timeline of their explorations.
Access to Mmotion is membership-based, requiring users to apply. Once accepted, they can input their interests, join "Circles" (groups focused on activities like hiking, basketball games, or art galleries), and send friend requests to nearby users. The app also supports private messaging.
Prioritizing Privacy and Safety
User safety is a core focus for Mmotion. The app features encrypted location data, accessible only to the user unless they choose to share it. Users are incognito by default in what Mmotion calls “Vault Mode,” which can be toggled at any time.
For more granular control, Mmotion offers "Personas," allowing users to create up to three distinct groups. This feature enables selective sharing of more private locations, such as a home address, with a trusted group, while maintaining a more public persona for others.
“So Miles might have [his ‘Deuce’ Persona], which is something where it’s a bit more curated, because he’s a public figure. So it’s for all the Knicks fans to see Miles go to places he’s okay with mainstream people knowing. And then he might have a [Persona], for when he goes to a different city, and he wants to be really low-key,” Einhorn explained.
Standard safety and moderation tools, including blocking and reporting, are also implemented.
Subscription Model and Business Integration
Mmotion will operate on a monthly subscription model for users. While specific pricing details were not disclosed, Einhorn indicated it would be affordable, stating, “It’s not going to be more than a cup of coffee per month. It’s not going to be anything crazy.” Premium tiers offering additional features, such as joining more than five Circles per city, may also be available.
Beyond individual users, Mmotion aims to support local businesses by featuring restaurants, bars, coffee shops, and fitness studios on its map. The app aggregates data from various sources, including Google, OpenStreetMap, and Apple Maps, to promote small businesses and provide them with insights into their customer base.
The long-term vision includes offering businesses a subscription service for access to anonymized analytics, helping them effectively target the right customers. The app will also generate revenue through ads.
Founders and Future Plans
This venture marks McBride's debut as a startup founder, joining a growing list of athletes transitioning into entrepreneurship. Joe Einhorn, his co-founder, is renowned as the founder and CEO of Fancy, a social e-commerce platform that once rivaled Pinterest. He also launched a luxury goods startup called Long Story Short last year.
Mmotion plans a wider launch in the near future, once sufficient feedback from beta testers has been gathered. The app is currently available for download on iOS and Android devices.
