Don’t know how to spend your weekend in Bahrain? Looking for new adventures? What if we tell you there’s an app that lists all activities going on in Bahrain? Whether it’s a concert, a movie screening, art exhibition, you name it and it’s there. Well, millennials are surely born in the right century, because there is indeed an app that helps them find new happenings around the country.
Today we introduce you to Odisi – a marketplace for events that help people discover and book unique experiences. Odisi curates and craft experiences anywhere from a life drawing class to a yoga retreat. People can just open the app, search for what’s going on around the country and with one tap purchase their own tickets! Easy-peasy.
We spoke to the serial entrepreneur Amshan Ashraf, Co-Founder, and CEO of Odisi. Born and raised in Bahrain, Amshan has worked with multiple startups since the age of 17 and considers himself a “fervent adventurist” or a “modern day hippie.” “My life revolves around family, food, travel, and entrepreneurship,” he tells us.
Amshan tells us that Odisi came to life when they wanted to create a platform for artists to share their craft, and for spaces to open their doors to magic. The name Odisi was inspired from Homer’s epic poem “The Odyssey” which means an epic journey, something which the app is aiming to offer to its users. In less than 8 months, Amshan and his team were able to launch the app with over fifty partnerships signed and two hundred events already listed.
Odisi’s main target is people who deem experiences over possessions, Amshan explains. The app is mainly designed for millennials that describe themselves as foodies, thrill seekers, the adventurous and the ones that ache to learn. “We want to get people to be mindful, to live in the moment, to break out of routine,” he shares.
This comes as Amshan grew up in Bahrain with an undefined identity that pushed him into a large number of social groups filled with fascinating people. “Whether it was a weekly dinner at my Italian friends, a gathering at a farm or my daily dose of Karak, I believe my experiences shaped me. I also realized that life packed with expensive meals and exciting activities didn’t necessarily lead to magic, instead, people did— interesting community elders, engaging historians, friendly locals, and open-minded folks,” he states. This further drove him to make Odisi an enriching experience for millennials in Bahrain.
On the other hand, Amshan tells us that they also received some support while launching, mainly from Rowad, Bahrain Development Bank’s initiative. According to him, the Rowad team helped them in terms of business-financial consulting. “Through an acceleration program, we were actually funded by the bank with an equity investment that got us through the building blocks,” he says.
Don’t know about you but Odisi surely got us excited to try out new things for the first time. Hurry up and download the app on Apple Store and Google Play Store to know more about the upcoming events in Bahrain.
You can also follow them on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook to be up to date with their future announcements.