Shruti Gautam
TLDR: Ole Miss students use technology to create app that tracks local bar information
Julian Bourgeois and Larson Carter, Ole Miss students, created an app called Crowd Cover that tracks local bar information. The app uses crowdsourcing technology to provide information on cover charges, wait times, and bar crowding. It was an instant hit with 10,000 downloads in the first month. Carter joined the team as chief technology officer to enhance the app’s features. They plan to expand the app to include Android devices and partner with more bars across 11 cities.
There seems to be an app for just about everything today and the tech-savvy are using that technology to craft a way into the future by bringing knowledge of a myriad of subjects to the fingertips of everyone with a cell phone. At 18 years old, Julian Bourgeois has already developed two new apps. While still in high school he created an app that tracks basketball shots for the Apple Watch. After arriving at the University of Mississippi in August as a freshman, an idea for a new app came to him while out and about in Oxford.
Julian Bourgeois decided to develop his new app, “Crowd Cover,” using crowdsourcing technology to allow users to see how much a bar is charging for a cover charge, whether there is a waiting line to get in and how crowded the bar might be. By September, Crowd Cover was released for iPhones on the App Store, allowing Oxonians, visitors and Ole Miss students to see which bar was charging a cover and whether or not they’d have a wait to get into the restaurant or bar.
In November, Bourgeois enlisted the help of fellow Ole Miss student Larson Carter, who now holds the title of chief technology officer for Crowd Cover. Both Carter and Bourgeois are computer science majors and Carter is also doing an entrepreneurship track for his minor. Carter, 19, and a sophomore, has been working on developing new features for the app that will allow restaurant-bar owners and managers the ability to provide cover charges and other information to include on the app.
The duo are also working on making the app eventually available for Android phones, as well as iPhones. The app currently tracks bar information in 11 cities, mostly homes to SEC colleges, including New Orleans, Auburn and Starkville. Bar owners and managers who would like to partner with Crowd Cover to provide information can email them. The app is available for free on the App Store.
