Playtlist , DifferenceMakers

The Playtlist team onstage pitching to DifferenceMaker judges

On average, it takes seventeen minutes for customers with dietary restrictions to find suitable restaurants online.

The goal of Playtlist is to allow more people with dietary restrictions to find restaurants to eat at, regardless of if they have a medical or religious restriction, allergy, or more. This project was started by Isaac Brown, a graduate student studying Computer Science, and Sebastian Pascal, a freshman in Business. 
The Playtlist team is currently working on development, where they will feature local restaurants, in the Lowell area. They will then determine what category the restaurants fit into, such as, vegan, gluten-free, kosher, halal and more. For the end user, they will simply filter their needs using the phone application, and be directed to a list of appropriate restaurants.
During the 2018 Idea Challenge, Playtlist won honourable mention, a $2,000 prize. They will use that funding to further develop their project and promote it to local businesses. They also won $5,000 of legal services from Foley and Lardner LLP and Chris McKenna, Class of 1989 in the Francis College of Engineering. They also received the opportunity to connect to a team of mentors, including Adam Rowley, the founder of LiveStalks, Howie Bloom, Financial Advisor at The Prudential Insurance Company of America, and Ray Southworth, Class of 1981 in the College of Fine Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences and COO of Netri Corporation. Playtlist is dedicated to helping those with dietary restrictions work around their food restrictions when eating out, and they hope that once they help those in the Lowell area, they can expand beyond.