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Launching first for the University of Bristol

Your campus feels smaller when someone answers.

Yap is the verified campus network where UK students can ask, laugh, vent and connect without turning every thought into a public profile.

Growing waitlist · Bristol students are signing up daily
.ac.uk verifiedCampus-only feedsAnonymous or named
00:51
Campus feedUniversity of Bristol
Yappin’TopNew
MMaya⊙ Question

Best quiet study spot?

Beacon House62%
Senate House38%
13 2
4
AAnonymous

Anyone up for a coffee before the library?

8
6
BBristol Film Society✓

Open screening tonight. Come alone or bring a friend.

3
AAnonymous

Anyone free for lunch near Senate House?

5
7
92% of UK students felt lonely at least once in the previous academic year
43% worried their peers would judge them for saying so
2.9M students enrolled at UK higher education providers in 2023/24
Group chat · 47 people 3d

Anyone want to grab lunch after the lecture?

You ✓✓

Read by 34

silence
Anon · Bristol 2m

Anyone else find first week harder than they expected?

Anon · replied just now

Yeah. Coffee at Wills in 15?

The hardest part is often saying the first thing.

Why social media falls silent

Every first message can feel like a performance.

Profiles, follower counts and visible identity make a simple question feel public. Students edit themselves, anticipate judgement and wait for someone else to speak first. In a large group chat, that pressure often looks like silence.

Yap changes the conditions around the conversation. Every verified student shares the same campus space, with the choice to speak anonymously when identity gets in the way. The first message feels smaller, so replying feels easier.

Less performance. More replies.

A lower-pressure way to find the people already around you.

Live in Yap today

A lower-pressure way into campus life.

Not another follower graph. A conversation layer for the university you already attend.

Speak without performing

Post and reply anonymously when identity would get in the way—or switch to your named profile when it helps.

Turn posts into conversations

Threads, polls, reposts and direct messages keep an idea moving beyond a passive like.

Stay close to campus

University verification, campus feeds, tags, filters and activity alerts keep every interaction relevant.

Safety with accountability

Reporting, blocking, moderator review and account warnings protect the community without exposing anonymous identities.

The Yap loop

Make the first move feel smaller.

Post

Say what you actually mean.

→
Reply

Discover someone feels the same.

→
Talk

Move naturally into a private chat.

→
Belong

Turn campus into familiar faces.

The team

Meet the founders.

We're students building the campus network we wished existed. UK campus life has its own rhythm—and it deserves a platform built for it.

Nazar Oliinyk
Stanford University
Founder · Stanford

Nazar Oliinyk

Second-year Ukrainian undergraduate studying History and Engineering at Stanford University, with interests in economics, decision analysis, and applied statistics. Nazar combines this analytical foundation with university research experience to approach complex problems from both technical and business perspectives.

LinkedIn ↗ oliinyk@stanford.edu ↗
Thomas Lynch
University of Bristol
Co-founder · Bristol

Thomas Lynch

Second-year undergraduate from Ireland studying Engineering Mathematics at the University of Bristol, focused on agent-based modelling, clustering algorithms, and machine learning. Thomas brings a rigorous, data-driven approach to turning complex problems into practical solutions.

LinkedIn ↗ ce25594@bristol.ac.uk ↗
Our story

Thomas Lynch moved from Derry to Bristol for university. He found a campus full of people, events and group chats, but few natural openings into real conversation. The platforms around him helped maintain friendships once they existed; they did little to help create them.

While visiting Stanford, Thomas met Nazar Oliinyk, a Ukrainian student exploring the same problem from a different campus. Both had seen how students could be surrounded by people and still hesitate to speak first.

Together, they began building Yap around a simple idea: every verified student should enter a shared campus conversation from day one. Students can speak anonymously when identity adds pressure, or use their name when it adds trust. Their goal is to turn small replies into familiar faces—and a campus into a community.

Founding ambassadors

Bring Yap to your campus.

We're looking for founding ambassadors at Bristol, Bath, UCL, Trinity, and beyond. If your campus should be next, we want to hear from you.

Paid from day one

Founding ambassadors are paid contractors, not volunteers. Real work deserves real pay.

Shape the launch

You know your campus. You'll help decide what launch looks like—events, moments, the first 500 users.

Career-level experience

Learn go-to-market, community building and growth from a founding team. Real responsibility, real reference letters.

Exploring next

Features that lead somewhere offline.

The next chapter is about reducing the distance between seeing a post and actually sharing a moment with someone nearby.

Proposed concepts—not shipped claims

Tiny Plans

Coffee in 15 minutes, a study break or a walk to lectures—small, expiring plans for two to four students.

Don't Go Alone

Find one person to arrive with before a society event, class or campus activity.

Quiet Company

Ask for company without the pressure to perform: study together, eat lunch or simply share a table.

Launching at Bristol

Join your campus conversation.

Be among the first students on Yap at the University of Bristol.

Join the waitlist →