SU senior launches city line tracking app in hopes to ‘Never Wait Again’
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From 45-minute waits at Chipotle to lines out the door at Collegetown Bagels, Syracuse University senior David Simon realized long lines weren’t just an issue in his hometown of New York City.
Waiting in lines became Simon’s full-time job this summer as he prepared to launch an app, ensuring his friends never had to wait again.
Simon’s app, Never Wait Again, is a user-driven platform that shares wait times and line lengths to improve users’ efficiency and time management. Featuring bars, restaurants and gyms in Syracuse and New York City, the app operates as a “Waze for lines,” where users can self-report activity levels of certain locations, he said.
“No one enjoys a line,” Simon, an advertising senior in the Newhouse School of Public Communications, said. “Never Wait Again is people helping people because they understand that.”
As a New York City native, long lines have been an unwelcome staple in Simon’s life.
Early-morning bike rides to the basketball courts at Hudson River Park inspired the idea for Never Wait Again, which Simon said has been in the works since 2020. A self-proclaimed line hater, he frequently came home from court trips complaining about how long he waited to play, or not play at all.
Simon’s father encouraged him to make an app.
When he was a sophomore in high school, Simon said he laughed at the idea of creating an app. Without any coding experience or knowledge of what it would take to complete, Simon ignored his father’s suggestion and continued to suffer through long lines every day.
Attending SU welcomed a host of new lines and wait times to deal with, he said.
Each year, Simon would return home with a myriad of related complaints, and his family continued to echo the same response: make an app.
However, it wasn’t until a guest lecturer in SU Professor Sean Branagan’s Trendspotting in Digital Media class that Simon finally decided to address his lifelong feud.
Nick Moscatiello, founder of music video production company Project Freefall, spoke to Simon’s class about his experience as a startup founder. Moscatiello, being only one year ahead of Simon academically, lit a fire beneath the line-hater and encouraged him to begin working on Never Wait Again.
An app can’t be successful without the right founder, Branagan said.
“It doesn’t matter how great the idea is; it’s about the person,” he said.
Branagan noticed Simon’s entrepreneurial spirit and pushed him to pursue Never Wait Again seriously, propelling him to “just make the app.”
Fear and low confidence are normal among student founders, Branagan said. He often encourages students to take risks while they’re still students and use all the resources SU has to offer.
“Failure can look a lot like success,” Branagan said. “If you look back in six months at what you did, and you’re not embarrassed, you did it wrong.”
Simon took a risk and began walking the streets of New York, taking photos of lines, talking to businesses about peak rush times and interviewing people in lines whom he affectionately calls “sheep.”
Simon defines a “sheep” as a person who follows a herd or crowd.
“Anytime I see people waiting in line, I go, ‘Oh, those people are sheep,’” he said.
On his daily walks monitoring lines in New York, Simon said he often ran into line “sheep” who had no idea what they were in line for. Whether it was a tote bag or a new frozen yogurt flavor, many in line told Simon they joined the line to follow the trend.
Simon and his close friend Jeremy Cohen visited spots including viral frozen yogurt shop Myka and iconic pizzeria John’s of Bleecker Street in the city to document lines for social media. To create a brand identity and gain attention for the app, Cohen donned a furry white onesie and a lamb mask, then lurked around busy lines along the street.
“The costume is a little scary, a little demonic,” Cohen, a television, radio and film student at Newhouse, said. “I truly believe in his product… whenever I have time, I’m willing to throw on the suit.”
Cohen used the app over the summer while living in New York but said he hasn’t had a chance to try it out in Syracuse yet. He appreciated the ability to check how long the lines are between classes to save time in his busy schedule.
In addition to the app’s presence on campus, Simon also added nine locations to Never Wait Again NYC, a tab on the app that features some of his and his friend’s favorite spots in the city.
The Never Wait Again Syracuse tab currently features six locations, including popular bars on Marshall Street like Harry’s Bar and Faegan’s Cafe and Pub, as well as the Barnes Center at the Arch, with plans to expand in the near future.
Collegetown Bagels is featured in the app as a location where users can upload photos and videos of the line and report whether it is “empty,” “light,” “busy” or “packed.”
During a recent visit to Collegetown Bagels, Aarini Godha, a sophomore at SU, turned around at the sight of the long line. She said she plans to download the app to avoid similar situations next time she wants a quick bite on Marshall Street.
Colin Lee, a manager at Collegetown Bagels, said he hadn’t heard of the app before his interview with The Daily Orange, but said the app could help improve long lines outside the store. Lee said he hopes Never Wait Again will develop a pamphlet to include in order bags to let customers know about the app.
Similarly, R.C. Faigle, the owner of Orange Crate Brewing Company, said he welcomed the possibility of working with the app in the future in addition to their current partnership with LineLeap, an app that allows users to skip lines and pay cover fees before arriving.
When patrons identify patterns in line lengths and wait times at the bar, lines can move faster based on staggered arrival times, which Faigle said Never Wait Again could help with.
Faigle said he had a few reservations about the inaccuracies reports might bring, which could lead to lower activity levels.
“When you go to theme parks, they say the wait times are always longer than they really are,” he said. “If it says 55 minutes but you get on the ride in 35, you’ll be a lot happier.”
Simon’s solution is a verified badge that businesses can post alongside wait times and lines to ensure accuracy on the platform.
While SU classes begin, Simon hopes to help students develop strong time-management skills and build a community on his app to improve campus life.
As someone who spent years complaining about lines with no solution in sight, Simon found an unexpected way to make lines his life.
“I’m passionate about helping people,” Simon said. “I’m passionate about lines.”
