So Keitz decided to create an app that curates every event happening in the city, together with her business partner and boyfriend of three years, Steven LaGuardia.<\/p>\n
Their app, Playdate, launched in December and has quickly amassed more than 1,340 users around Philly. It\u2019s a social media app \u2014 people can comment on events and see what kinds of activities their friends are attending \u2014 but one that is designed to get people off their phones and interacting IRL, all while giving small businesses and their events a boost.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I am trying to build into the interface of Playdate is approachability. When you look at it, you should feel calm and like attending something or trying something new is an extremely low lift, not some huge commitment,\u201d LaGuardia says. \u201cYou\u2019re not feeling that FOMO or that you\u2019re not in the loop on all these upcoming plans.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though Keitz had been thinking about creating something like Playdate from the time she was a college student, she and LaGuardia didn\u2019t begin work on the app until June 2025.<\/p>\n They bring different skill sets to the business: LaGuardia, a software developer, created the physical app, while Keitz uses her event planning skills to help bring people onto the platform, inviting friends to act as beta testers and cold emailing businesses to invite them to post their events.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m building the platform, and Sascha\u2019s bringing people onto it,\u201d LaGuardia says.<\/p>\n They started out by making a list of priorities for the app, including a grid where users could see what events businesses were hosting, the ability to see what events others were attending, and scrollability. Basically, they wanted it to feel like \u201cany other social media app,\u201d Keitz says.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I think of my generation, and my friends, and people I know who live in the city, we wake up every morning and we go on social media,\u201d she says. \u201cFor better or for worse, we\u2019re all checking things, we\u2019re all tuned in, we\u2019re all looking at what people are doing.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really helping people find community, find like minded people, get out of their house or their apartment.\u201d \u2014 Sascha Keitz<\/p>\n Friends began testing the app this fall before it went live in December. While they want Playdate\u2019s users to get the same dopamine hit they might from scrolling TikTok or Instagram, their ultimate goal: get people off their phones, interacting IRL.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a worthy goal: 54 percent<\/a> of Americans feel isolated and 50 percent report lacking companionship,<\/a> the American Psychological Association\u2019s 2025 Stress in America survey found.<\/p>\n People are working from home more frequently. Political divisions make neighbors mistrustful of one another. Loneliness doesn\u2019t just wear on people\u2019s mental health; it has physical consequences, including an increased risk of heart attacks and stroke.<\/a> Studies have found social media can increase feelings of solitude,<\/a> especially amongst young adults.<\/p>\n Finding events in Philly <\/p>\n When you sign up, Playdate prompts you to select some interests. Maybe you\u2019re looking for health and wellness events. Or you want to find more volunteer opportunities in the city. The options span everything from food and drink and arts and entertainment to professional networking and education opportunities.<\/p>\n Playdate then curates a feed for you of local events that meet those interests.There\u2019s a home tab, which features events from businesses you follow, and a search tab, where you can search for things like \u201cgame night\u201d or \u201cbook club.\u201d That tab also offers a Pinterest-style feed of suggested events from businesses you don\u2019t necessarily follow, to help you explore the city and find new things to do. It might recommend a billiards tournament or a local running or hiking group. People can save events and comment on them.<\/p>\n The app differs from other event curation sites, like Eventbrite, in that there\u2019s an interactive component: people can follow their friends, send them events, see what events they\u2019re attending and make plans to go together. If you mark that you\u2019re interested in attending an event, Playdate will send you a reminder, so that you actually get up and go instead of bingeing Netflix on your coach at home.<\/p>\n Grace Samuelson, a college friend of Keitz, began using Playdate during its testing phase and has continued to use the app to help find things to do in Philly.<\/p>\n She says Playdate has helped her avoid getting stuck in a rut. If she\u2019s looking for something to do, she\u2019ll open the app and instantly find tons of options. If she wants to break up her day and get out of the house, she might go to a bakery pop up for more casual connection. Or she\u2019s been to book meetups where she can discuss what she\u2019s reading and build deeper relationships with others.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve sent it around to people at my job, to friends and family. I think it\u2019s something that everyone can benefit from because there are so many different businesses and types of events on there,\u201d Samuelson says. \u201cIt\u2019s not like relegated to one niche. There really is something for everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n A few weeks ago, the app helped her find a charity mat pilates class at the Fairmount studio Midsection Connection. All of the proceeds went to Project HOME, a Philly nonprofit that fights homelessness.<\/a> For Samuelson, that was a win: she was working out and helping her community.<\/p>\n \u201cThe new studio was really cool,\u201d Samuelson says. \u201cI also really liked that it had a give back component to it. It made it more meaningful.<\/p>\n Business owners have found the app easy to use as well and have found it\u2019s helped folks cut through the noise of platforms like Instagram and TikTok to find and save events near them that they want to attend.<\/p>\n \u201cSocial media can be really saturated. We\u2019re scrolling constantly. We might not really remember to go back and save that or look for that post that we saved,\u201d says Allison Polans, who co-owns the plant stores STUMP in Northern Liberties and Bella Vista with her partner, Brett Wilshe. She\u2019s been using Playdate to promote STUMP\u2019s workshops and pop ups where other local businesses will sell homewares, jewelry or baked goods.<\/p>\n \u201cWhereas in the Playdate app, it\u2019s all there laid out. It\u2019s really user friendly for people who are intentionally looking for things to do.\u201d<\/p>\n Giving small businesses a hand <\/p>\n Keitz and LaGuardia started Playdate thinking they would help young people, like themselves, find things to do and make friends in the city. They\u2019ve been delighted to hear from small businesses that Playdate has brought more people into events, which can boost sales and revenue. It\u2019s also helping businesses connect with and support one another. So far, about 151 businesses are using Playdate.<\/p>\n \u201cSmall business is really the heart of Philly, and what makes Philly so special. It\u2019s what makes each neighborhood so unique and gives people just such a sense of community,\u201d Keitz says.<\/p>\n \u201cI am so excited to keep connecting with these local businesses. It has truly opened my eyes so much to how businesses run, how businesses operate, how people are investing their life savings or livelihood to open this bookstore, to open this plant shop \u2014 whatever it is. It has been so inspiring.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cConnection is what people are really, really searching for, and I hope that we are able to provide it in a really easy, accessible way.\u201d \u2014\u00a0Sascha Keitz<\/p>\n At the end of January, Keitz organized a launch event, bringing together around 25 business owners and Playdate users to connect with one another, network and share ideas. All in all, more than 60 people attended.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was really like stripping it back and asking what are you experiencing? What are you looking forward to this year? What are you worried about this year?\u201d Keitz says.<\/p>\n The event helped local businesses who want to host events connect with potential venues as well, says Shelby Guercio, operations manager for the board game shop, event center and all-around third space BUBs.<\/a> BUBs hosts its own events \u2014 a fiber arts meet up on Tuesday nights, drop in Dungeons and Dragons sessions, a writer\u2019s accountability group on Wednesdays \u2014 but it\u2019s also available for folks to rent.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was like puzzle pieces [fitting together,]\u201d Guercio says. \u201cWe were able to make such great connections with people who host art workshops, people who host sip and paints, people who host different types of lessons, different types of bonding events \u2014anything like that. And I got to be like, if you ever want to do an event \u2026 we\u2019ve got the space.\u201d<\/p>\n Currently, Playdate is free for both businesses and users. Keitz and LaGuardia are working on a few different plans to monetize it, perhaps adding paid features or earning revenue via referral bonuses from event ticketing sites.<\/p>\n They both have full time jobs, Keitz as a corporate event planner and LaGuardia in software development, so there\u2019s not too much pressure to make money on Playdate just yet. They\u2019ve leaned on friends and family as well: Keitz\u2019s aunt is a graphic designer who helped with the app\u2019s sleek, minimalist look. Her uncle is a lawyer who helped them puzzle through the legal side of things.<\/p>\n They\u2019re focused on growing the number of users in Philadelphia. Keitz is based here, but LaGuardia had to move from Philly to Colorado for his full time job. They can see the app expanding organically to other cities. Maybe businesses in nearby cities like New York or Baltimore start listing events and it grows from there.<\/p>\n They haven\u2019t had to use paid advertising to grow Playdate. Keitz promotes it on social media and through reaching out to business, but mostly it\u2019s grown via word-of-mouth from users. They\u2019ve had three consecutive weeks of 50 percent growth in their user base since launching.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really helping people find community, find like minded people, get out of their house or their apartment,\u201d Keitz says. \u201cWe all need more of that and the fact that we\u2019re facilitating that is really, really rewarding.\u201d<\/p>\n Playdate has, in some ways, already solved the problem Keitz set out to address. It\u2019s helped her find free workout classes nearly every weekend, including a pilates class where they brought in a nutritionist. In a few weeks, she\u2019s going to a book launch for Philly author Nikki Castle\u2019s new novel Love for Hire<\/a> at the Broken Spine,<\/a> a romance bookstore in Fairmount. Strangers have messaged her on social media, telling her that the app has helped them make friends in the city.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can open your phone and you can message anyone online, or you can see people hanging out. There\u2019s something great about it, but there\u2019s also something very isolating about it. You put your phone down and it\u2019s like, well, did I talk to anyone in person today? Did I have any time away from my screen?\u201d Keitz says.<\/p>\n \u201cConnection is what people are really, really searching for, and I hope that we are able to provide it in a really easy, accessible way.\u201d<\/p>\n Playdate users hanging out <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sascha Keitz is deeply familiar with FOMO (fear of missing out). Like many young people today, she reaches…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122606,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2936,69,71,70,2918,3652],"class_list":["post-122605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-business-for-good","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-small-business","tag-social-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/PDKP-19-Sascha-and-Steven.jpg\"\/)
<\/a>Sascha Keitz and Steven LaGuardia. Founding playdate <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Playdate-event.jpg\"\/)
<\/a>Playdate users enjoying each other\u2019s company <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Playdate-event-2.jpg\"\/)
<\/a>The launch event Growing playdate <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770651905_510_nl_bolt600-copy.jpg\"\/)
MORE BUSINESS FOR GOOD FROM THE CITIZEN<\/p>\n