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After a racy calling building Bonobos andadvocating for founding father mental wellness , Andy Dunn moved to Chicago with his category . A few years later on , he came to a uncheerful realization : He had n’t made any newfangled friends .
“ I do n’t opine it ’s easy to allow in to yourself that you do n’t have friends , ” Dunn told TechCrunch , laughing . “ It ’s like , ‘ I do n’t have any friend ! ’ ”
Dunn ’s experience is representative of a larger drift : Americans are unfrequented . This loneliness crescendo at the onrush of the pandemic but did not fullysubsideas lockdown and limitation eased .
Dunn did finally make a new friend , Gustavo Casas , a fellow technical school founder and investor . Casas would soon become part of Dunn ’s squad for his newest speculation calledPie , a societal internet aiming to solve the same aloneness egress he faced during his first few years in Chicago .
Pie , which found in Chicago and is now rolling out in San Francisco , connects users with events in their area . But Dunn is reimagining an overdone construct by incentivizing creators to host outcome .
“ We believe there is a whole hidden thriftiness of people who love to convene others and who are survive to — as that residential district expands and speed — help end this societal closing off pandemic , ” Dunn say . “ Who just need some money and capital to be able-bodied to do their thing . ”
Event apps like Partiful are gaining popularity , but they often are pitch toward organize events with your existing social circle , like a Friendsgiving or a natal day party . And while Facebook Events used to be an effective way to see what ’s up in your region , Facebook usership has refuse among gen Z.
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Pie is gift $ 1 million into its Creator Fund , which yield people between $ 5 and $ 10 per RSVP to host interesting events that add people together . One of the most successful consequence serial is theSunday Morning Club , which encourages people to do grouping natural action like yoga and beach volleyball instead of “ wasting a Sunday . ”
“ He has maybe , like , a $ 100,000 run rate on Pie , ” Dunn said of Sunday Morning Club arranger Kyle Casaccio .
Pie can compensate its personal digital assistant thanks to a sizable venture raise . The company most recently secured a $ 11.5 million Series A cycle top by Kirsten Green of Forerunner Ventures . Twitter carbon monoxide - founding father Ev Williams also clothe $ 5.3 million himself , and in total , Pie has raised $ 24 million — a substantial aggregate for a troupe in a space that ’s so private-enterprise and difficult to monetize .
“ We ’re paying you . Like , you ’re the one doing the unappreciated and hard work of unionize , ” Dunn said . “ And of course , it ’s incumbent upon us to cipher out the business model that makes all the maths work . ”
Dunn ’s team has n’t solved that maths equating yet , but Pie has the runway necessary to sustain itself in the interim . When it comes to make people out to effect , however , Dunn has some hypothesis to battle user ’ incredulity .
For one matter , not all event are public ; this is also an added guard level for higher - profile creators who may not want to circulate their location to all of their followers . But it also makes people more probable to attend .
“ If you ’re invited to everything , you kind of do n’t want to go , ” he read . “ If you think about LinkedIn , it ’s almost like you ’re publish to your first degree and your 2d degree connections . So Pie is make on friends of acquaintance . ”
Dunn has also learned that friendship apps loosely work better when they ’re not one - on - one . The first iteration of Pie was a 150 - query personality quiz — Dunn described it as being “ almost like an OkCupid level of datum input ” — which would match you with a potential friend . The app has since pivoted .
“ There ’s a rationality why those products tend to clamber : because it ’s not organic , ” he said . “ The way platonic relationships form is , they form in a group setting . ”
As of October , Pie has around 23,000 exploiter . As Pie vagabond out in San Francisco , its second city , Dunn is optimistic about the meshing ’s potential difference in a place that ’s home to so many ambitious citizenry who are attempt connexion .
“ We just want to unlock that and make it easier for people to touch people and make friends in the Bay Area , ” Dunn said .
