Check Off Your Digital Bucket List with Achvr

Sky diving photo via Shutterstock

Boston-based startup Achvr wants to help you to fulfill your destiny … or, at the very least, get you off your ass. The site and app, which has its official launch this weekend, functions as a digital bucket list. You sign up with Facebook or Twitter and then input the things you want to accomplish in life, whether it’s trying kimchi, learning Farsi, or hiking Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Using the data pulled from your social network, the site finds people in your circle that share your goals. So, for instance, if you and your second cousin both have a secret desire to skydive, Achvr will be able to link you up, giving both of you the nudge you need to take the (literal) plunge. The site has also built partnerships with vendors like Groupon, Gilt Group, and Living Social, and will notify you if a skydiving discount comes on the market. They want to use your data to help you to do the things you want to achieve, but it also serves as a smart way for companies to target their products at the people who really want them.

“Achvr’s mission is to enable people to live happier, more fulfilled lives,” says its cofounder Ryan Traeger, one of three Boston College alums who have raised $1.2 million to get it up and running. So far the team has created more than 10,000 achievements on the site, and each has a point value associated with it. The purpose is to create a game layer on life, Traeger says, though he admits that points earned are more like merit badges than currency, a feel-good measure to keep you on track and let you compete with your peers.

As a kickoff, the Achvr team will be barnstorming Boston doing their own urban bucket list in the form of the #72in72 weekend. Traeger and company are attempting to do 72 Boston-area achievements in 72 hours, which means stops like the Frost Ice Bar and Sam Adams Brewery, plus Quiddich matches on the Common and a visit to the MFA. They’ll be tweeting up a storm as they go, and invite the public to join them, as they’ve arranged cover for many of the admission fees to the sites (you just show up or sign up via via Eventbrite). “We’re trying to actually live this mission ourselves,” says Traeger.