A Georgetown University graduate will release a new social discovery app centered around music tastes in late February to Georgetown students.

The app, Ligo, matches students with similar music tastes based on location, aiming to foster connections among college students. Georgetown graduate Micah McNeil (CAS ’22) co-founded Ligo based on his experience at Georgetown during the COVID-19 pandemic and hopes to distinguish from other social media apps’ tendency to sell data and maximize engagement for profit. 

McNeil said Ligo was inspired by what he sees as insincerity on current social connection platforms.

“They’re incentivized for engagement, not connection,” McNeil told The Hoya. “Endless swiping and curated profiles ultimately increase the pressure to perform to be someone who you’re not. With Ligo, the goal was to eliminate friction from initial human interactions and make them more natural and less intimidating — and we realized that music was the perfect thing.”

The app will launch for the first time at Georgetown, partnering with local businesses to provide discounts to Georgetown students and to attract more users, according to McNeil.

McNeil said following Ligo’s release, Georgetown students will be able to connect their music streaming app — such as Spotify or Apple Music — and Ligo will match students with peers who present similar music tastes, encouraging them to interact.

“We’ve partnered with local businesses around the Georgetown area,” McNeil said. “When three people near that business are musically compatible, they’ll get a push notification of a discount that the business is offering, basically inviting them there. Once you get to the location, you scan a QR code that checks you in and allows you to redeem the discount. Then, you’ll enter an experience that shows you other people who received the same invite.”

Elliot Anderson (CAS ’28), the executive editor of arts and culture magazine The Georgetown Independent, said he believes in Ligo’s mission and is excited for its release at Georgetown.

“I guarantee that there are people who would get a ton of benefit out of this app,” Anderson told The Hoya. “There are a lot of great channels to meet people in real life with similar music tastes. But it’s not as immediately obvious. When I was coming into Georgetown and didn’t know how to get into the music scene, this would have been an amazing tool.”

Ryan Hofman, the other Ligo co-founder, said he joined McNeil to build Ligo as a reaction to modern social media and to combine software with human interaction. 

“I’m raising kids in a world that feels completely different from the one I grew up in, where digital connection often replaces human connection,” Hofman wrote to The Hoya. “I joined because I believe we can turn that tide. We can use technology not to isolate people, but to bring them together. That’s the kind of thing worth dedicating yourself to.”

Social media platforms like Instagram often share user data with advertisers and businesses for targeted advertising. While directly selling data to third parties is legally frowned upon, platforms can leverage user data to maximize revenue for vendors and advertisers. 

McNeil said Ligo will not share user data. 

“User data on Ligo is private, encrypted and controlled by the user,” McNeil said. “Ligo collects the minimum data required for the experience. And we will never, never share your personal data with third parties. Money is not the goal, but the byproduct of creating something great.”

Quinn Ross (CAS ’29), social media manager at The Georgetown Independent, said he sees music as the perfect socializer.

“I kind of gravitate towards music because it’s just so easy to talk about,” Ross told The Hoya. “Most people — one way or another — enjoy music, and it’s really fun when two people can enjoy it together, whether it’s a special song or a band or an artist.”

McNeil said he hopes Ligo will grow from its initial launch at Georgetown into a much broader platform, starting with college campuses and eventually expanding to cities.

“One day, we want to be this big oak tree, but right now, we’re a little acorn,” McNeil said. “I want every single user to feel like this project is theirs as well. I want everyone’s opinion on how we can refine it and improve it, because a society without human connection is a society that is fragile — and nobody wants that.”