Welcome! We're excited you're here. For all media inqueries, please email 23branches@gmail.com . We are more than happy to help you!

Below, we have included all relevant information including links to download all applicable material. Click here for a link to our Brand Guidelines, or see the section at the bottom of the page. All images have links to download their files as well.

What is BarHop / 23Branches?

23Branches is a community building company based in Austin, TX co-founded by Javier Villarreal and Dylan Flores. 23Branches is  the sole owner of their flagship company and product – BarHop Social. BarHop Social is a life-style company centered around a mobile application of the same name. With BarHop, users are able to safely enjoy nightlife, connect with their friends, and discover local places while saving money on drink specials.

Feature Highlight

For Users

  • Angel Shots: Users can now anonymously message bar staff to report inappropriate behavior. Access this feature by clicking on the bar’s Profile Page and clicking on the Angel Emoji.
  • Designated Driver: Tap the DD button on your home screen to let your friends know you are a Designated Driver for the night! You will be able to see which friends are marked Designated Driver by opening your friends list. Message one of them if you need help throughout the night. Do not drink and drive!
  • 24hr Group Messages: Ever go out with a unique combination of people and didn’t want to create a group message JUST for that night? Create a group of BarHop that deletes after 24hrs. Group messages allow you to be safer when you are out on the town. Having a group that deletes allows you to not spam messages to your friends at home (or be the one getting spammed messages while at home). Do not drink alone!
  • Location Sharing: Users can opt to share their location with their friends, however – a users location will only be shared when they are at a bar and up to 10 minutes when they leave the bar. When they are Barhopping! We also offer two privacy mode settings: Ghost Mode & Private Mode.
    • Ghost Mode: Ghost Mode allows you to turn off location sharing so no one will be able to view your location. 
    • Private Mode: Private Mode allows you to only display your location to friends you mark as “Favorite”.
      • Barhopping is more enjoyable (and safer) experience when you are with your friends. But once you leave, no one needs to know your business. With BarHop, you can connect with friends like you never have before.
  •  Daily Specials & Fire Sales: Through the Feed Tab, you are able to view all the active specials happening in your area to help you save money and discover new places! Bars can also push notifications directly to users who are out drinking in the area to alert them of “Fire Sale” specials which are limited time specials that may only last a few hours.
  • Shouts: Shouts allow you to Shout to your friends! No more messaging multiple groups asking “What’s the move?” or “Let’s go to the bar!”. Now you can post a shout to your feed and notify all your friends on whatever your update is. Friends can comment on the shout to coordinate with you and all shouts delete after 24hrs.
  • Feed: The Feed tab displays all daily specials on that particular day! Any active fire sales will appear on the top of your feed above the daily specials. You can also use the Feed tab to access your Shouts and Notifications.
  • Bar Profiles: Bar Profiles will display all relevant bar information including address, hours and operation, and any active fire sales and daily specials. You will also use the bars profile to access the Angel Shot Feature.

For Bars

  • Angel Shots: The Angel Shot allows users to anonymously communicate with bar staff to report inappropriate behavior.
  • Daily Specials: Bars can post a recurring daily special which are viewable on the user side of the application.
  • Fire Sales: Fire Sales are a new form of Flash Marketing which allows bars to push notifications DIRECTLY to users who are already out drinking.
  • Analytics: Currently BarHop tracks the following analytics for our client-partners:
    • Clicks: How many clicks your bar has received over a certain period of time.
    • Users at Your Bar: How many users are currently at your bar.
    • Less Than 5 Minutes: Shows a combination of metrics such as how many users walked by your bar but did not walk in / How many users stayed less than 5 minutes. This analytic is released but is still in public testing.
    • Users in Area: How many users are within a 2 mile radius of your bar.

Mission

To bring people together while making nightlife more safe, fun, and affordable.

Our Story: Barhop Social

In December 2019, Dylan and Javi were out on The Square in San Marcos hanging out with some friends at one of their favorite bars, Chimy’s. They were talking about how the previous night they kept losing each other and their friends while barhopping. It was very difficult to keep their group of 6 together. When some of the group was ready to go to the next bar, some weren’t ready to leave and others had just gotten another drink. This happened several times throughout many nights and as a result, the group would inevitably split making it near impossible to get everyone back together and on the same page. While at Chimy’s, Dylan thought it’d be cool if there was an app that would track you ONLY when you’re at a bar or when you’re barhopping. Jokingly, they said they should make it and call it “BarHop”. As the night went on, to “test” their idea, they’d say the word “BarHop” every time they were inconvenieced while out on The Square. The pair stopped counting after 20. The next day while playing Super Smash Brothers, Dylan and Javi talked about all the other issues they had with nightlife. Never knowing where to find affordable drinking options, safety concerns, and their original problem – finding their friends. Like all college best friend ideas – it died out.

In March 2020, the world changed as the pandemic took over the world. Javi, who was a programming student at the time, called Dylan and told him he needed a project to keep his mind busy while the world around them dove into chaos. In a time when no bars were open – talking about this idea and developing it gave them something to do, a purpose, and comfort as they got to stay connected despite physically being apart. It was through the pandemic, BarHop Social was born.

Through 2 years of development hurdles and overcoming issues as not only first time founders, but as the only people in their families being startup founders, they spent days of their time at networking events, pitching to investors, and learning how to make this dream become reality. After hosting hundreds of customers at bar crawls around Austin, networking with some of liquors largest brands, and receiving the Golden Ticket Award from Capital Factory, Texas’ largest venture capital firm, Dylan and Javi are well on their way to achieve their dream of streamlining the nightlife industry. Though the work has only just begun! Today, the pair has developed a working MVP nearing one thousand users throughout the Austin-San Marcos region and are raising capital to catapult BarHop Social to the next level.

Our Story: 23Branches

So why is the parent company 23Branches? For starters, because BarHop is only one of Dylan and Javi’s many ideas they hope to pursue together. They are strong believers in, “if your company is named for what it is – that is all it will ever do”. BarHop is designed to assist users in their nightlife experience, but 23Branches as a parent company is a community building company that can bring people together in more ways than just nightlife. 

So where did the name 23Branches come from? On December 2nd, 2018, Javi entered his first Hack-A-Thon hosted at Texas State University along his classroom programming partners (and close friends) Zoe Schmitt and Adam Castillo. Neither of whom had ever competed in a competition like this before. 

The prompt for the competition was “Hello World – Develop A Video Game in 10 Hours”. With very novice level experience of game design, the trio took it as an opportunity to just learn and have fun with each other. They thought it’d be fun to develop a game where you play as a knight, and when the night bumped into a rock – he’d say “Hello Rock”, when he bumped into a tree – he’d say “Hello Tree”, when he swam in a lake – he’d say “Hello Lake” and when he climbed on top of a mountain – he’d say “Hello World!”. Halfway through the competition, they realized their game was coming together and due to the cheekiness of it – maybe they’d have a shot at one of the more creative-type awards. 

One hour before the competition was over, Javi broke the code. The game would not start. Now for class projects, the rule the three of them  followed was “you broke it, you fix it”. With little time left, this was a dangerous way of thinking. Zoe, who is an incredibly hard working perfectionist, insisted she needed to continue polishing the assets prior to the end of the competition. The following conversation played out like this:

Zoe: “You broke it, you fix it.”

Javi: “Zoe, whatever you’re designing, the judges will not see if the code does not compile. Please help me fix it… What are you even working on”

Zoe: “The trees. They don’t look right, they need more branches”

Javi: “How many branches do they need?”

Zoe: “Idk, 23.”

Javi: “Ok, you have 30 minutes to add 23 branches and then I need your help.”

In a very on brand fashion, the team fixed and submitted their code with 3 minutes to spare. Exhausted, hungry, and annoyed at each other after not taking a single break during the entire 10 hour period, the group realized they forgot to submit a team name. When judges came by and asked what their team name was, Javi replied sarcastically, “23 Branches”.

The team won 1st place. Javi named his company after this team because even though this is his first venture, it’s a reminder that no matter your inexperience, you may know more than you think you do – and if you trust your team, you can achieve great things.

Founders

Javier Villarreal

Chief Executive Officer / Founder

Javier graduated from Texas State University with a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science. In and out of college, Javier held numerous leadership positions ranging from Vice President of Scholarship of Texas State’s Interfraternal Council, Director of Texas State University’s Extended Orientation program, Director of a programming school, and more. During his time in these roles Javier has hired, trained, and managed hundreds of employees, supervised and served thousands of students, and raised and generated tens of thousands of dollars for his respected organizations. Javier has 6 years of experience coding as a programmer. He’s worked with and for numerous startup companies in the greater Austin area ranging from virtual reality to mobile applications and has competed and placed in multiple Hack-A-Thons. 

Javier is responsible for managing all initiatives and projects company-wide as well as owning communication with our software development team.

Dylan Flores:

Chief Operations Officer / Founder

Dylan graduated from Texas State University with a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science. While in college, Dylan also focused on mass communications through coursework and internship experience. Since graduating, Dylan. hasgained extensive experience in B2B Software Sales in multiple organizations of various stages and sizes. In his sales career, Dylan has generated over $1.5 million in revenue. After finding success in tech sales, Dylan pivoted to a career in headhunting for Executive-Level Technology employees for top firms, including Google. Dylan is responsible for design and implementation of strategy across all departments, project management, and proactively identifying opportunities for growth.

Client and Brand Partnerships

Prior to launch, Dylan and Javier built numerous strategic partnerships with bars and brands in the San Marcos / Austin area. To do this, they hosted 3 bar crawls hosting hundreds of people and generating thousands of dollars for the bars hosting these events including Cat’s Pajama’s Key Bar, Valhalla, Buford’s, Gnar Bar, Mooseknuckle, and more. Doing this allowed them to build their brand identity, display value to their clients, and survey potential users involved. 

In addition to partnering with these bars, they also partnered with Malibu who generously donated hundreds of dollars in in-kind gifts to allow them to market more effectively. This partnership came organically as a Mulibu rep just happened to be at their first Valentine’s Themed bar crawl. Together, the two teams realized they could work together – being in the same industry with the same target customers, while not competing with each other.

During this time, they also received Capital Facory’s (Texas’ largest venture capital firm) Golden Ticket Award. During their stint with Capital Factory, they gained valued knowledge from many industry experts which has helped them catapult themselves into their next phase.

Since launch, BarHop Social has worked with bars including San Marcos staples including Chimy’s, Harpers / Veranda, Nephews, and Mayloos – with Chimy’s management congratulating the team on a successful launch and saying they were optimistic and believed in the product with Mayloos management asking to continue partnerships in the future. The Nephew’s owner even invited the BarHop team to their staff meeting upon learning about the app to train and on-board all of their staff.

Social Media

Social Media:

Instagram: @barhopsocial

Twitter: Barhop_Social

BarHop Website: barhop.social

23Branches Website: 23branches.com

Brand Guidelines

Hex Code:

#0CBCC5 (BarHop Blue)

Primary Font:

Icelandic

Secondary Font:

Comfortaa

Link to Brand Guidelines