We are living in a social epidemic of sharing overly glamorous and unrealistic lives. When people are rewarded for building their status and following, it’s just not possible for people to be their true selves.
Even worse, this popularity contest is leading to bullying, trolling, and overly-edited lookalike profiles that result in less and less human connection. : (
Before social media, in the days of AOL instant messages and IRC chats, it was a joy to connect with others around the world and realize there were people like you, even if it were just a momentary conversation. For many of us who felt like we didn’t belong, the internet made it possible to feel
connected.
Friended is bringing back that magic moment by making it easy for people to be themselves and to connect instantly with others who feel the same way. Friended doesn’t care what you look like, how you dress, or where you live. It’s all about light-hearted fun, spontaneous one-on-one conversations, unexpected friendships, and maybe even a chance to meet someone special. : )
Over a period of 3 years, we tested this concept with 500,000 users. People are now using Friended 8-10 times per day and have sent 25 million messages. We have a freemium subscription model that will enable us to grow Friended while keeping the experience personal. In other words, we can stay true to our values and grow without using negative feedback loops, popularity mechanics, or viral hacks.
About
Friended was launched in 2018 by Dan Kurani and Ben Chow. Dan was previously the founder of Thumb, a social network that had the 2nd highest usage times on mobile. Ben was formerly a designer at IDEO, one of the nation’s top design firms, as well as an early employee at a social gaming company that was sold to Disney. The company has recently raised $500k in seed funding from well-known investors and formed an advisory board that includes a licensed psychologist and a number of technology influencers.
Our mission is to help people be their truest selves and foster more authentic human connection. Today, that helps people smile just a bit more. Tomorrow, we believe that this can result in increased empathy, kindness and expanded human consciousness.
With this new release of 2.0, we are getting a bit closer to this vision¦
You will now be able to make friends and share your moments with a small group. Build your circle of friends and share the real moments of your day with just them. Also, we’ve added the guess me game. A light-hearted way to get to know people without all the heavy expectations and find out what people really think of you.
Finally, we’ve removed reputation metrics and added new icebreaker card gestures that make it clear that you’re responding to content instead of a photo.