Olivia DeLaMas is turning that mindset on its head. What if scrolling through social media didn't make you feel bad? What if social media, especially for women, actually made you feel more supported?
“This is certainly not what mainstream social platforms were created for,” DeRamus told TechCrunch. But with his social platform Communia, DeRamus is venturing out something that may seem counterintuitive.
Communia is both a social platform and a mental health tool, allowing users to post updates in a community feed or keep a private diary to track their feelings over time. But to be vulnerable, users need to feel safe, so the platform is taking an approach that may polarize some users but reassure others: users must verify their identity before they can fully use the app.
“It's a safety feature, but it also creates a vibe that this is an intimate space and that you're safe here,” she said, “so people can feel confident talking about PMDD or talking about difficult life experiences that they're going through.”
Image credit: Communia
Deramas used to work for a nonprofit focused on combating violence against women, but she switched to tech because she knew firsthand how valuable online support platforms could be. She was sexually assaulted while in college, and when she found it difficult to open up to friends at the time, she sought out online communities to help her process her experience.
“I turned to social media to try to understand what was happening to me,” she says. “This was before the MeToo movement. Where were women talking about sexual assault?”
At Communia, Deramas is building the app that was needed at the time. “Communia doesn't have all the answers, but even with very little funding and very few resources, the solutions to many of the internet's problems are often simpler than the big tech platforms would like us to believe,” she said.
And because DeLaMas isn't a typical tech founder, she's not following a typical tech company playbook. “I know in tech, most people go a long way before they know how to make money. I know BeReal got acquired recently, and they had no idea how to make money,” she says. “That's not Communia's path. So we wanted to spend our time not only building a better digital world for women, but also building a more sustainable type of tech product.”
So Communia's monetization plan is to bring creators on board: the idea is that fans can pay to access a more intimate community of creators they know, where the emphasis is on the connection of the group as a whole, rather than on their specific relationship with that creator.
To develop its creator strategy, Communia has brought on former OnlyFans CEO Amrapali Gan as strategic partner and growth advisor.
“We've known each other for about a year now. I actually sent her a DM, casually, without any prior notice, and she replied. We met and over time she advised us on a lot of different things,” DeLaMas said. “She's so passionate about our mission and has helped us with so many aspects of the business that we realized it made sense to bring her on board in a formal role beyond a traditional advisor.”
Gunn served as CMO and then CEO at OnlyFans when the platform was experiencing explosive growth. Like Communia, Gunn made safety a priority during his time at OnlyFans. OnlyFans is the platform most associated with adult content, and it uses a digital identity platform called Yoti to prevent minors from registering. Gunn left OnlyFans last year to found Hoxton, a creative agency that works with startups.
“Her expertise helps us make better decisions and grow faster. Her expertise also helps us navigate many of the tricky issues that arise with any social media platform,” Deramas said.
Communia is still a relatively new platform. The app joined TechCrunch's Startup Battlefield 200 in 2023, but it's taking a slow approach to building the platform. DeRamus hasn't promoted the platform much yet, but that could change with Gan's involvement. But slow growth makes sense for a platform like Communia, as its entire premise could be undermined by a lack of content moderation capabilities to grow at scale without sacrificing safety. Communia is now in the midst of raising its first institutional funding, and hopes that additional capital will help guide safe growth.