“We've come a long way from our pants,” Andy Dunn, founder of online fashion retailer Bonobos, told TechCrunch. Now, the former CEO is tackling a completely different challenge. He wants to help people make friends.
Dunn's latest venture, Pie is a social app focused on bringing people together in real life.
With the $11.5 million Series A Rase and funds paid to organizers to host the event, Pie has grown to over 130,000 active users despite being only available in San Francisco and Chicago. But more users meant that in-person events hosted through the app were also more crowded, making it difficult for people to connect.
The young company was facing problems. How do guests know who should talk to when hundreds of people show up at an event? How can they make friends when they step into a busy room surrounded by strangers?
“This is the beauty of building a startup,” Dan said. “The solution causes problems.”
Fortunately, any possible fixes to this issue were not difficult to find.
Two Pie event organizers had already worked together to build a tool called Sparked Connections. This is an AI-driven quiz that tries to predict who people will become friends with at a particular social event. Pai hired two founders, Samir Mahafza and Sam Stab, folding the quiz into a specific gathering branded as “a pie was lit.”
For example, at Pie's “Coffee with Strangers” event, RSVPS will take a short personality test. Respondents responded that they agreed to the sentiment given on a scale of 1-5. These prompts vary. Do you believe in astrology? Do you pray? Would you like to vote? Are there any toxic properties?
Before the event, the quiz algorithm divides respondents into groups of six based on who think AI will work best. These six people are then placed in group chats on the pie, allowing them to get to know each other before the event.
“We're starting to strengthen it [ChatGPT]. And when you get a feedback loop of who is related to who and who invites things, why do people hit it? ” Dan said. “And I think it's a very dark art, so without the AI inflection point, it's a problem that's pretty much impossible to solve.”
With growing concerns about the level of loneliness among Americans, it may seem depressing to need algorithms that help make friends. But if you've connected with a new friend via Instagram or have dated someone from Bumble, you've already put AI into your social life.