After building Bonobos and having a solid career advocating for the mental health of its founders, Andy Dunn moved his family to Chicago. Years later, he realized a depressing reality. I hadn't made any new friends.
“I don't think it's easy to admit that you don't have any friends,” Dunn told TechCrunch with a laugh. “It's like, 'I don't have any friends!'”
Dan's experience is representative of a larger trend: Americans are lonely. This feeling of loneliness reached its peak at the start of the pandemic, but did not completely subside even as lockdowns and restrictions were eased.
Dan eventually made a new friend in fellow technology founder and investor Gustavo Casas. Casas soon becomes part of Dan's team in his latest venture called Pi, a social network aimed at solving the same loneliness problem he faced during his first years in Chicago. It turns out.
Pie launched in Chicago and is now expanding to San Francisco, connecting users with events in their area. But Dunn is trying to rethink the over-the-top concept by encouraging creators to host events.
“We believe there is a hidden economy of people who love to gather with others, and as that community expands and accelerates, we intend to help end this pandemic of social isolation. I believe that,” Dunn said. “People who just need money and capital to do their job.”
Event apps like Partiful are gaining in popularity, but are often aimed at organizing events in existing social circles, such as Friendsgiving or birthday parties. And while Facebook Events used to be an effective way to see what's going on in your neighborhood, Gen Z is seeing fewer Facebook users.
Pie has invested $1 million in the Creator Fund, which pays people $5 to $10 per RSVP to host interesting events that bring people together. One of our most successful event series is our Sunday Morning Club, which encourages people to do group activities like yoga and beach volleyball instead of “wasting their Sunday.”
“He probably has a run rate of $100,000 in the pie,” Dunn said of Sunday Morning Club host Kyle Casaccio.
Pie is able to pay its organizers thanks to significant venture funding. The company recently secured an $11.5 million Series A round led by Forerunner Ventures' Kirsten Green. Twitter co-founder Ev Williams also invested $5.3 million himself, bringing Pie's total funding to $24 million. This is a huge amount for a company in a field where competition is fierce and profitability is difficult.
“We're paying you, it's like, you're the one doing the thankless hard work of organizing,” Dunn said. “And of course it's incumbent upon us to understand the business model that makes all the calculations work.”
Dunn's team hasn't cracked the equation yet, but Pai has the runway it needs to survive in the meantime. But when it comes to getting people to attend events, Dunn has some theories to counter user skepticism.
First, not all events are public. This is also an additional layer of safety for high-profile creators who don't want to broadcast their location to all their followers. But it's also about making people more likely to participate.
“When you're invited to do something, you don't want to go,” he says. “When you think about LinkedIn, it's like publishing first-class connections and second-class connections. So Pie is built on friends of friends.”
Dan also learned that friendship apps generally work better when it's not one-on-one. The first version of Pie was a 150-question personality quiz. Dunn described it as “close to OK Cupid-level data entry.” This was to match you with potential friends. The app then pivoted.
“There's a reason these products tend to struggle: They're not organic,” he says. “Platonic relationships are formed in a group setting.”
As of October, Pie had about 23,000 users. As Pie rolls out in its second largest city, San Francisco, Dunn is optimistic about the potential for networking in a place filled with ambitious people looking to connect.
“We just want to unleash it and make it easier for people to meet people and make friends in the Bay Area,” Dunn said.