Mediaboss Marketing

Dean Kelly (left) and Justin Parfitt, founders of the HeyLets app.

The idea of walking into a shopping centre on a Saturday afternoon made Dean Kelly's skin crawl.

"I couldn't bear the thought of having to fight crowds to furnish my flat," Kelly says. "I thought what better way of avoiding hordes of people than start an online furniture store."

So the former management consultant came up with the idea of Zanui, an online furniture and homewares store. While building the website, Kelly lived in his flat with his basic furniture bed, fridge, Xbox and beanbag.

"I was determined to see the idea through and I didn't want to go against my beliefs of buying furniture the traditional way. That was back in November 2011 and the business has grown substantially from there."

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While in US raising money for Zanui, Kelly came up with his latest project.

"Having built an online furniture business propelled my desire to develop a global internet business," he says. "I didn't want to leave Zanui until it was solid and performing well but creating a social networking app really appealed to me.

"That's where the idea from HeyLets evolved from it is a social networking app that allows people to share their experiences based on their interests and positive experiences."

Kelly met online entrepreneur Justin Parfitt in America in early 2013 and they decided to roll out the app in Australia first to test the market. As far back as 2002 Parfitt had created Fast Impressions, a speed-dating company that had expanded around the world.

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Zanui founder takes social networking to a new level with HeyLets