Behind SayHi.co.uk, Have you ever watched a film and felt inspired to set up a website...

Have you ever saw a film, read a book or spoken to someone and came away thinking why hasn't anyone done anything in real life to help people, this scenario must happen to thousands of people all the time.

Well, this is exactly what happened when Suzanne McNab watched the film Serendipity a few years ago. You remember the film the one where John Cusack meets the girl in the bookshop, they don't know each others name, cannot find each other, then the film ends happily when they both meet up years later.

I asked the founder of SayHi.co.uk Suzanne McNab, so you watched this film and decided to set up a website?

(S) The initial inspiration of the website came after seeing this film, but there were other factors as well, on the radio shortly after watching this film a person was trying to find someone they had met from holiday but did not know where to start looking, in our local and national newspapers people were trying to trace relatives, neighbours, etc. I searched around the internet and could not find any sites covering what we wanted to do. We wanted to bring a website together covering every region in the UK allowing people to find and Say Hi to each other easily.

(M) How did you come up with the name of the site?

(S) Well, that was the easy bit, if people want to find others again they would want to Say Hi. We were lucky that the Domain Name sayhi.co.uk was still available, as it is such an easy name for people to remember. We decided to set up our company One & Three Ltd at the same time.

(M) I do not know if anyone else has ever been inspired to set up a website to help people after seeing a film, will the idea catch on do you think? when did the site get launched?

(S) The site went live in June, we have had thousands of page impressions from all over the world, the site also has loads of other features, forums which cover every region of the UK, (you can post and read messages directly to your desired region in the UK), movie trailers, celebrity gossip, music videos, (we have partnered with some of the major labels, who have allowed our members to share, email and legally embed the code of the music videos to your own blogs or site, for free), plus lots more and the best thing it is free to join, no cost to anyone ever! You asked will the idea catch on people saying hi to each other, well people say hi in real life and face to face all the time, now they can say it online.

(M) If you do not charge any money, how will the site pay for itself?

(S) Our site is totally ad-funded, we have tried to choose advertisers who will benefit our members.

(M) What else can I say, if there is someone out there you want to Say Hi to you now have a free way to find them. If anyone feels inspired after watching a film, you too can take a leaf out of Suzannes book and develop it into a website.