On December, 2019, Ido, CEO of DODO Apps, got interview for the chupchick magazine by Adi Dardi. The following article is the article by Adi translated from Hebrew to English

Have you ever wanted to do something, but all of your friends were busy? Just last week you wanted to jam, but all your friends were invested in school? Looking for a new and exciting hobby, but you don’t have a direction yet? BuddyBug is Probably the app for you.

Meet Ido Marko, During the day he is just your regular student but at night, he develop apps. When he was just 14 years old, Ido developed his first app and started his own Android development studio – DODO Apps. But his attraction to the tech world start even earlier: “When I was 10 years old I took my fathers programming book that rested on the shelf, and started reading it. I didn’t understand anything – not a single word, nothing made sense. Afterwards I just took a book more appropriate my level and it was much better. When I asked what draws a 10 years old to try and learn programming, he answered: “Until this day I have this thing towards leaning new stuff, and this was one of them”.

Ido’s love for the computer world and his passion towards learning new things have accompanied through out his life, but his most recent app, BuddyBug, came alive from a different place. The idea for the app came for the music room in his University. “The idea came to my mind because I really like to play music, and in the music world it is always fun to play with new people and learn different music styles. Many of them didn’t even learn music – they just picked up an instrument started practicing. I think that this is a very unique way to meet people and I thought to myself ‘wow, it would be really could if there was an app for that’ “, after talking to different people, Ido realized there is a real potential in BuddyBug. Because hey, everybody tried to find a partner for his personal hobby, and after a few failed attempts have settled down for a night of board games.

The idea of BuddyBug is simple: Make people meet based on joint activities.
In the registration process the user fills out the activity which he would like to do, additional to his age and gender, and after publishing his profile the rest of the users can swipe right (to like) or left (to dislike), and by that they mark whether they want to join the activity or not. If you liked the activity of another user, an option to chat is opened up for you and you can schedule a time to do your activity. To differ from other apps we are familiar with from the dating world, BuddyBug makes sure the connection is purely based on the activities by not showing the profile picture of the users until after they have connected with each other.

Ido wrote the code for his application by himself. He’ve also designed, marketed and wrote the script for commercials that are being broadcasted these days. Despite his multitasking abilities, he emphasizes that he couldn’t have done it without the help of many others – for example, an American friend of him the recorded the audio for his commercials, the app testers were friends that agreed to help and the logo was designed by his talented cousin. The name for the app came from his 4 years old nephew. He tried to say Lady Bug but instead said something like baby bug, which led to the name BuddyBug. “He said it in such a cute way, that I had no choice but take the name”. Today the application is available on the Google Play store (so if you’re Apple fans like me, you might just have to wait).

The combination between studying engineering and developing apps also involves some difficulties. “The real challenge is to assign time to it” Ido tells us. While he work, study and also doesn’t give up on spending time with his friends, Ido says “But once you start working on your project, you just can’t stop!”

Besides connection between people and helping you find partners for any activity you desire, Ido believes that through the app you can be exposed to whole new worlds. As Ido still discovers many new hobbies, he is sure that BuddyBug might help you find your new hobby by looking through the different activities on the app, and when someone suggests an activity you’ve never done before, you might just give it a chance.

In the long, Ido hopes to make a change in our society and make us drop the alienation and the focus on looks, instead, he wished to make a true connection with what truly matters. In the mean time, he sets more realistic goals for the app. When I ask what he consider for success, he says without any doubt: “If I can help form a friendship between just two people, that would mean the world to me. That may look like a small achievement for two years of work, but it is a whole new world for the people involved. Think about, your best friend, my friends, I can’t imagine my life without them in it. If I can help form even more friendship, the app can be delete for my concern.”

In his back pocket he keeps a small dream he hopes to achieve one day, developing an app the can be accessible for the elders. “I have a dream, a future project maybe, that I can help fit the elders into BuddyBug. I volunteered in a nursing home and I saw people that have the will to do stuff but no one to do it with. If I can figure out how to make it available to them, it would be really awesome.”

Until this dream come true, the main audience for the app is us, the young generation, and there is no better place to start rather our university in Be’er Sheba. If you own an Android phone, have an open mind and want to make new friends and hobbies, BuddyBug has already arrived and it is here to stay.

Thanks Adi for the fun interview! You can click here to read the original article in Hebrew.