Jad Hanna works the counter at Washington St. Cafe in the mornings. His parents opened it in 1985 after fleeing Lebanon’s civil war, abandoning their professions as lawyers and economists to build a better future for Jad and his brother.
This, Hanna said, has pushed him to allow others to build better futures for themselves. He’s building an online space for people to do just that.
“I just want people to realize that whatever they want to do is possible. I know that sounds so generic,'” Hanna said about an app that helps users build and share new skills. “But it’s really true. You just have to set your mind and do it step by step.”
In his family’s cafe, he dresses in casual New England attire, a flannel, blue jeans and sporting a winter beard around a warm smile.
Now in his late 20s, he graduated from Bishop Brady High School in 2013 and went on to study electromechanical engineering at Wentworth Institute of Technology.
After working through the morning rush, he returns home to work his full-time gig. Hanna works remotely for a San Francisco-based motor vehicle manufacturer called Cruise, specializing in self-driving vehicles.
He tried the California life for a while and bounced between a few tech companies out west, and he liked it, but he also missed home. Over the years of working in tech and robotics, there was an idea for something bigger that nagged at him.
It all started during the pandemic in 2020 when he taught himself how to speak Chinese just because he had the time. Next, he wanted to learn a few songs on guitar. After work, he’d sit in his room trying to learn it and send videos to his musically adept friends, asking for advice.
That’s when his idea struck. “I thought to myself, There’s got to be a better way to have a place where you can start working on something, and then as you work on it, make progress updates in one centralized place,” Hanna said.
He spent years working on his opus. What was it exactly? An app and website called “Opus Cafe” in homage to his family business and opus for people’s desire to learn, improve, encourage each other and create.
Opus Cafe functions similarly to platforms like Facebook, Reddit, GoodReads, Strava and the now-defunct 43Things.com. It’s all about setting goals, tracking progress, sharing it with the community and encouraging others in their pursuits.
It’s an intuitive platform. When first accessing it, a pop-up prompts the user. It reads: “Every post is a goal someone has. Progress Goals are updated like a journal, creating a timeline of your progress. We are a community dedicated to positivity, sharing, and learning. Join us today!”
The sleekly designed site has a few key features. After creating an account, Opus Cafe prompts you to create a profile, avatar, description and select interests ranging from wellness, creative endeavors, gaming, business acumen, to electronics, environmental conservation and much, much more.
It’s hard to overstate how much those around Jad have informed his project. While he’s spent the past three-plus years working on launching Opus Cafe, he couldn’t have done it without help, he explained.
He didn’t know much about coding before embarking on this project. With the help of friends he made along the way at DEKA in NH, out west and some help from AI coding software, he was able to launch the website earlier this year.
From digital badges earned on a profile, to different ways to interact on the platform, he’s only improved it to maximize its usefulness.
The process of creating Opus Cafe would have been worthy of posting on the platform, tracking progress as it evolved and Hanna grew the online space. He still posts regular updates for the small base of users so they can follow on the journey.
Now that he’s developed it for web, Apple and Android devices, the next step is marketing. He’s spread flyers far and wide and visited classes at Manchester School of Technology to receive feedback from students.
Ultimately, Hanna wants his app to transform people’s lives for the better. The tool, he hopes, will enable others to pursue their goals and support others in their community.
“I automatically follow every new user and they follow me, like Tom from MySpace, so it always brings a smile to my face when I’m sitting at dinner with friends or in a work meeting and get a new notification that someone has joined,” Hanna wrote in an email sharing data about his project.
He’s excited for the future and is currently looking for help as the platform grows. He wants the company to grow locally and set its roots here in New Hampshire.
As the platform has already surpassed 600 users and the workload increases, Hanna’s looking for programming, marketing and social media interns. He’s also looking for more experienced collaborators, iOS/Android entry level engineers, AWS experts, or anyone interested in helping grow Opus Cafe.
The website for the platform can be found at opus.cafe and Jad Hanna can be reached at jj@opus.cafe.
