Dovento is a platform designed to connect people through shared experiences. Last Week in Denmark recently had the pleasure of speaking to Growth Marketing Coordinator Martin B. Hansen. Martin discusses the vision behind Dovento and the team’s journey in building a community for expats. From tackling challenges to growing the platform, Martin offers a unique perspective on the startup’s growth and what’s next for Dovento.
Let’s start from the beginning — the motivation behind Dovento, why it was created, and how the journey began.
The idea for Dovento had been on founder Christopher Palsgaard’s mind for years. In late 2023, between jobs, he took the leap and launched the app in July 2024 with co-founder Anastasia Viken, who handles the commercial side while he focuses on development.
I wasn’t part of the team then. My journey began in August 2024 during a summer holiday in Helsinki. I planned an Interrail trip but struggled to find travel companions. Searching online, I realized there was no easy way to connect with others for spontaneous plans. A few days later, back in Copenhagen, I found a flyer for Dovento—it was exactly what I had been looking for.
After joining events and becoming part of the community, I applied to the team, sharing my story and vision. Now, I work in marketing and lead the community, helping others make connections just like I once searched for. And in 2027, I plan to finally take that Interrail trip—this time using Dovento.
Can you tell us more about the background of the others in the team?
Anastasia’s background story and the reason she found the co-founder position attractive are deeply personal. She moved to Copenhagen at the age of six and adapted well to the city, while her older sister, who was a teenager at the time, struggled significantly to settle in Denmark. Anastasia’s motivation for joining Dovento comes from her sister’s experience. She believes that a platform like Dovento could have made it much easier for her sister to find connections and settle in Copenhagen, and later, when moving abroad to new cities.
In Denmark, people often form their social circles early, usually in high school, and by their mid-20s, they tend to stick with close-knit groups and are less open to meeting new people. Moving to Denmark at a young age, Anastasia was able to break into these circles, but she empathized with her older sister’s struggle.
What about Christopher?
Christopher is Danish and grew up in Denmark. He’s always had a deep curiosity for trying new sports and activities. However, he noticed that his friends weren’t always as eager to join him in these adventures. That’s when the idea for Dovento first took root — to create a platform where people could easily find others to engage in activities with, regardless of whether it’s trying a new sport, visiting a café, or something else entirely.
While the original concept was focused on helping people find activity partners, the app has evolved in a surprising direction. Today, Dovento has become a popular app among expats, helping them connect and build social circles in new cities. Despite this shift, the core idea — making it simple for people to find others to explore activities with — remains at the heart of the app.
How many users do you have right now?
We now have over 3,000 users, mostly in Copenhagen. We launched in Helsinki on January 11th and Malmö on February 1st. Helsinki has nearly 300 users, while Sweden has just over 100—we’re just getting started there.
What do you think sets your app apart from the competition?
We’ve streamlined the app for non-commercial, micro-events. Hosts can set a participant cap and approve requests, ensuring a more intimate and manageable experience. For example, an indoor football game can be limited to 10 people.
What are the app’s main features?
The key feature is that you can manage everything easily. We’ve designed the app specifically for micro-events, with a cap on the number of participants. You can accept or reject requests that come in, and there’s a group chat for every event. It’s also very intuitive to use—people understand the app very quickly once they log in. To keep it short, the app is streamlined for non-commercial micro-events, minimalistic, and intuitive.
As for the key features of the app, it allows anyone to create events or join other people’s events.
Is there any process in place to ensure safety? Do you have any rules or safety features?
Yes, we have safety measures in place, though there’s always room for improvement. One key feature is that hosts can accept or reject participants, offering more control compared to platforms like Facebook or Meetup, where anyone can join an event. Users can also block or report others if needed.
Right now, our community is still small, with under 4,000 users, and we’ve had very few issues. However, we remain proactive in ensuring safety, and any concerns reported are handled promptly.
What are the top events in the app?
Regarding the top three spots: We have a book club in Copenhagen and Malmö that’s always fully booked, and we just launched one in Helsinki yesterday. We expect it to fill up soon, though it hasn’t yet.
As for the second spot, Volley events are quite popular, but they don’t fill up as quickly as some of the others. Football probably takes the third spot, with badminton also being a strong competitor.
That said, the event with the most consistent attendees is probably darts. Although we don’t have a huge number of users interested in darts, those who are interested show up consistently, which is really great.
You also have super hosts. Could you explain what that is?
Sure! So, our super hosts program was created because, while we had many events on the app, they weren’t always consistent. People could attend events like ping pong, badminton, paddle tennis, or after-work drinks and have a great time, but when the event was over, they didn’t know when the next one would be, or even if there would be another event at all.
So, we introduced the super hosts community, which consists of hosts who organize consistent events. For example, we have weekly darts events, weekly badminton events, volleyball almost every week, and book clubs every other week. These events are all hosted by our super hosts.
Every fifth week, the super hosts come together to give us feedback on how we can improve the app. The main purpose of the super host program is to ensure consistency in the events on the app, gather feedback from the community, and enhance the user experience.
Additionally, we provide a quality badge to these hosts, so when you see the super host badge on an event, you know it’s a verified event. So, if anyone is interested in becoming a super host, they’re welcome to send in an application!
Do you have any partnerships? Financing can be hard when you’re a start-up, right?
The answer is no, we don’t have any sponsors or government support at the moment. Right now, it’s very much a passion project for us. We haven’t secured any investors yet, but we’re actively looking for them.
At the moment, we’re funding everything ourselves. However, I do have access to an incubator at Copenhagen Business School as a student there, which gives us office space for free. This has been incredibly helpful for us as it allows us to meet regularly and work together. Additionally, the incubator provides access to professional help, and we get to be in an environment surrounded by other startups, which is very inspiring. And of course, we have a ping pong table, which we like to post about!
Are there any challenges you’re currently facing while trying to scale up and grow?
Yes, definitely. We’ve been facing several challenges. One of the biggest ones is securing investment, which is a long process that most startups go through. We’re also working on launching corporate spaces. These are spaces we plan to sell to different companies, where they can get licenses for their employees. The idea is that employees can access shared spaces where they can create and join events, such as going for drinks after work, taking a walk during breaks, or playing ping pong or football. It helps strengthen the community and knowledge-sharing across departments, and we believe it will also improve employee retention.
However, the challenge here is selling this concept to corporations, as it’s a new idea. We have proof of concept in the public space, but it’s still a process to get companies on board.
Another challenge is acquiring new users. We can’t afford paid marketing yet, so we rely on organic growth methods, like posting in Facebook groups. This brings in around 30 downloads a day, but in the long term, we need to figure out how to scale our growth more quickly. That’s definitely a challenge we’re working on.
It’s said that “what gets you here won’t get you there,” so while we have a system that works for now, we’re constantly searching for ways to accelerate our growth.
Are there any new features coming to the app later this year?
Yes, the most exciting feature we’re working on is the introduction of business spaces. This will be a game-changer for the app, as it will allow corporations to use our platform to create and join events, strengthening their internal communities and promoting cross-department collaboration.
Additionally, we’re adding a one-on-one chat feature in our next update. This will greatly enhance the user experience by allowing direct communication between event participants.
Another feature we’re rolling out is city-based location filters. This means users can select cities like Copenhagen, Helsinki, or Malmö, and see what events are happening in each area. It will also allow users to check out events in cities they’re planning to visit, making it easier to join in before they even arrive.
Those are the major updates we have in the works at the moment!
What has been the most rewarding part of building this project for you?
The most rewarding part is seeing the impact we have on people. Testimonials are great, but nothing compares to experiencing it firsthand—attending an event, connecting with others, and knowing our product helps make that possible. That’s what keeps us going.
