We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ray Abram a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Ray, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

The idea for GreatNight came from a very personal place. A few years ago, I realized something surprising: even though I had lived in Atlanta for years, worked in entertainment and tech, and had a wide network, I still found it difficult to figure out what to do on any given night. Friends were scattered, event information was fragmented, and most “event discovery” platforms were either trying to sell me tickets or forcing me to scroll endlessly through social media noise. I kept thinking, “How is it this hard—especially in a city known for its culture?”

At the same time, I watched people around me—especially newcomers, recent graduates, and young professionals—struggle with genuine loneliness. They weren’t looking for another social media app or another place to buy tickets. They were looking for real connection, real experiences, and real people to share them with. That emotional gap is what sparked the idea.

I started building GreatNight in the summer of 2023 after one simple thought: What if finding something fun to do—and finding people to do it with—was as easy as opening your phone? What if an app could cut through the noise, show you every event in your city, and also help you build community in real life?

From there, the logic became clear. Traditional event apps make their money by selling tickets, so they have no incentive to help you actually build relationships. Social media platforms show you content from everywhere except your own city. And local businesses are being forced to rely on big-tech ad platforms where 40% of impressions are bots or people who live nowhere near them. There was a huge gap, and nobody was solving it in a way that put real people first.

GreatNight became the answer: a social app built around actual experiences, not algorithms—where users can discover events, meet people with similar interests, earn points for engaging in the real world, and support local businesses. The part that excited me most was how naturally the product blended my two worlds—entertainment and technology. It felt like the culmination of everything I had been preparing for: my years in the music industry, my decade in tech, and my passion for building community.

What made me certain it would work was that every time I described the idea, people would say the same thing: “I need that.” The problem was real, the pain point was universal, and the timing was perfect. We live in a world where people crave connection but don’t know where to start. GreatNight gives them a starting point—and a community—every time they open the app.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

For those who may not know me, my name is Ray Abram, and I’m the Founder and CEO of GreatNight, a social-concierge app that helps people discover experiences, meet others, and build community in real life. My career has always lived at the intersection of entertainment and technology, and GreatNight is the natural evolution of both worlds coming together.

I started my professional journey in the music industry, working for companies like Sony Music, Relativity Distribution, and PolyGram Records. Those years taught me how culture, nightlife, and community come together to shape people’s identities and connections. When I later transitioned into the technology world—initially by building websites for LaFace Records in Atlanta—it opened my eyes to the power of software to solve real human problems. I spent more than a decade building tech products, launching startups, and helping companies innovate, including time at Amazon Web Services. But throughout all of it, one thing remained constant: I’ve always been passionate about experiences that bring people together.

GreatNight is the culmination of that passion. It’s a platform designed for anyone who has ever felt overwhelmed by options, disconnected from their city, unsure where to go, or simply craving real-life connection. We’re not just another event app. We’re solving three major problems:

Finding something to do is harder than it should be. Event information is scattered across Instagram, Eventbrite, flyers, group chats, and word-of-mouth. GreatNight brings it all into one place—every concert, party, workshop, pop-up, market, brunch, art show, and community event in your city.

Social media doesn’t help you meet people in real life. It’s built for infinite scrolling, not actually connecting. GreatNight adds a community layer—Vibes pages, conversations, interest groups, and points for attending events—that helps people discover each other naturally through shared experiences.

Local businesses struggle to reach real customers. They pay inflated prices on big platforms hoping for results. GreatNight solves this with affordable, hyper-local advertising where every impression reaches someone in Atlanta who can actually walk into their location.

What sets us apart is that we’re building a social ecosystem centered around real life, not virtual content. We want people to go out, meet each other, support local culture, and build real community—not just scroll.

I’m most proud of the fact that GreatNight has already helped thousands of people discover events they otherwise wouldn’t have known about, and has helped local businesses grow without breaking their budget. But beyond the product, what matters most to me is the mission: helping people find belonging in their city. Whether someone is new to Atlanta, recently single, fresh out of college, or simply trying to meet more like-minded friends, GreatNight exists to make that journey easier, safer, and more fun.

What I want readers to know is simple:
GreatNight isn’t just an app—it’s a movement to bring people together, one great night at a time.
We’re building something that blends culture, community, and technology, and we’re just getting started. My hope is that whether you’re a user, a business owner, or a fan of Atlanta’s culture, you’ll see GreatNight as a tool that celebrates the best parts of this city and connects you to the people who make it special.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

I’d been working on GreatNight as a side hustle since 2023. Then when my employer had a huge layoff in November 2025, I was given the opportunity to work on this full time.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to unlearn looking bigger than I was. I always thought that looking like a big company was an advantage, but in reality, people want to support the scrappy underdog.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://greatnight.us
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/greatnightatl/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100093542928682