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As anyone who’s moved to the Invisible City will tell you — this reporter included — making platonic relationships isn’t easy. Adult friendships are fickle beasts in millions of metros, casual friends are cheap currency.
The statistics back up my anecdotal evidence. According to a 2021 survey by the Center for American Life Surveys, an increasing number of people cannot identify someone as a “best friend.” In the year In 1990, only 3% of Americans said they had no close friends, but by 2021, that percentage had risen to 12%.
Many startups have tried to “solve social” with apps, algorithms, and social cues, or a combination of these three things. Bumble, for example, tested a community feature that allowed users to connect based on topics and interests. Patok took a Tinder-like approach to connect users and have AI match both friends to block flirty messages.
But not everyone finds these experiences particularly fulfilling.
“[I’m alarmed] It’s because the tech industry doesn’t focus on building real social products instead of building to get attention and take advantage of our need for external validation,” Keyan Kazemian told TechCrunch in an interview. He is one of three co-founders of 222, a social events app that aims – like many of its predecessors – to facilitate meaningful and authentic connections.
Our society’s brightest minds—scientists, engineers, and product managers—are being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars not to solve the problems of loneliness, climate change, space travel, cancer, and aging, but instead to find new ways. The already mentally ill community consumes endless amounts of content, always fighting for more attention,” Kazemian continued. We are building a product to swing the pendulum in the other direction.
Kazemian launched 222 at the end of 2021 with Daniel Hashimi and Armaan Roshanai. They were brought together at the beginning of a university project to predict social compatibility between groups of strangers. At the end of the pandemic, Kazemian, Hashemi, and Roshanai — all Gen Xers (at 23, Kazemian is the oldest) — host an intimate dinner over machines and pasta for friends who don’t know each other in Kazemian’s backyard. Learning to make guest lists and psychological inquiry.
“People liked backyard dinners so much that they convinced us to try to replicate them with real places,” Kazemian said. In the year In early 2022, we moved to Los Angeles and began collaborating with brick-and-mortar locations, creating a marketplace between dynamic neighborhoods and members looking to discover their city and meet new people through unique social experiences.
That market became 222. Today, anyone between the ages of 18 and 27 can sign up for an account – the founding team is currently focused on the Gen Z demographic. There’s no app — just a basic Tyform workflow — and the signup process is designed to be simple. Once you provide your name, email address and date of birth, you’ll answer 222 30 Myers-Briggs-type questions covering everything from movie, music and cereal preferences to political views and religious beliefs.
222’s boarding survey.
Some are uncomfortably personal — you’ll be asked about your income level, sexuality and college major — but Kazemian says he’s interested in narrowing down potential matches. When asked about 222’s privacy practices, he said, “All of our data is encrypted and used only to improve the social experience of each 222 member.”
222’s small print also reveals that data from the app is being analyzed as part of the university’s social science project — a project led by Kazemian, Hashimi and Roshanai a year ago. Opting out requires contacting the company.
Image Credits: 222
After answering additional questions about your personality (e.g., “Is social activity incredibly important to you?”, “Are you willing to have uncomfortable and difficult conversations with your friends?”) and go for social activities (e.g., drinking, watching sports, going to nightclubs); 222 lists dietary restrictions and your zip code. They are then asked to select the factors they find most important in meeting new people (eg: social scene, political orientation) and finally it’s down to the competition.
Or should be. When I tried to register, the website threw an internal server error. I finally received a text confirming my registration, but it included a link to an endlessly loaded website. Kazemian talks about dental problems and promises to fix them.
When the typeform is done it is. An Algorithm at Work The behind-the-scenes algorithm uses the answers to those 30-some questions to determine where your personality falls into one of 16 categories. Once decided, you’ll be notified if you’ve been selected for a 222 event — for example, a dinner at a local 222’s partner — that currently takes place weekly and costs $2.22 to attend. Those not recruited to the dinner can choose to join after the event.
So is the algorithm good? According to Kazemian, and furthermore, 222 is one of the most relevant social apps based on real-life experiences.
“Most dating apps don’t have any relevance and instead just focus on the Elo type score in chess. Users on those products are only exposed to those with a similar ‘yes-swipe-to-no-swipe ratio’ to themselves,” Kazemian said.[By contrast,] Based on an onboarding survey of our members, 222 develops a psychographic profile for each new registration… Our algorithm then not only matches each member with the best group of guests for a given experience, but also the evening’s itinerary from the best possible consumer experience – which speaker will have the best time with this group of individuals. , cafe, concert or restaurant.
That’s quite a claim considering Tinder and even Facebook have dabbled in helping strangers connect at events. But the robustness of the algorithm aside, users may be wary of attending events with complete strangers. According to a 2022 report from the Australian Institute of Criminology, three out of four respondents have experienced real-life abuse through dating apps in the past five years.
222 is not a dating app to be fair. And when asked about moderation and anti-harassment measures, Kazemian said that the platform verifies the identity of each user – mainly with payment information – and that the staff of the site is present at every event. Site managers are educated on 222’s moderation and guidelines and should educate employees, Kazemian said.
“All 222 experiences are always public and in groups, unlike most dating apps. The 222 phone number acts as an emergency hotline during the experience, so members can text us if something goes wrong and have someone respond immediately,” Kazemian said. Finally, if any member is reported during a bad experience, that individual will be immediately banned for life.”
222 is an interesting forum to be sure. But it’s hard to imagine it expanding much beyond its current size. The company of three people (222 plans to expand to eight people by the end of the year) in and around Los Angeles – his hometown – is currently scouting locations and working to develop the backend infrastructure. Preparation for iOS app launch. No revenue model (except for merchandise store). Unlike the now-defunct PartyWith, which shares many of the same features as 222, 222 hasn’t yet tried sponsored events or other ways to monetize its experiences.
Maybe that will change now that 222 has VC money behind it. Operating out of the University of Southern California’s Viterbi startup garage, the company raised more than $1.45 million in a pre-seed round led by General Catalyst, including Y Combinator, 1517 Fund, Z Fellows, Crescent Fund and Wonder VC Scout Fund.
One wonders if the investor interest is different from the crop of new social and dating apps that aim to create relationships. A recent Crunchbase report highlights the growth of audio-based, video-based, and even meme-based social apps that have raised tens of millions in capital from VCs in the past two years.
In an emailed statement, General Catalyst’s Nick Bonatos expressed confidence in 222’s growth potential.
“Young people have been robbed of ~2 years of their social life because of the pandemic. You crave socializing, making new friends, and falling in love. The time has come as 222 are offering a timely product to their key audience – one that facilitates social interactions in dynamic areas of the marketplace. At Gen Catalyst, we love partnering with Gen Z tech founders who build products for themselves.
222 Can a post-pandemic social network successfully turn demand into a profitable business? That depends on whether he can overcome his growing pains, technical and otherwise.
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