Bonobos founder Andy Dunn’s newest enterprise is leveraging AI to assist customers make real-world associates.
If somebody is having hassle making associates, a brand new social media app leveraging manmade intelligence might be able to assist with that.
It’s known as Pie, a platform designed by entrepreneur and one of many co-founders of Bonobos, Andy Dunn, to foster real-world friendships by means of curated group experiences and good matching expertise. It developed from his personal want to re-connect with associates within the post-pandemic world.
After greater than a decade since co-founding the lads’s attire firm, Dunn relocated his life from New York’s concrete jungle to Chicago in 2021. Whereas throwing himself into writing a memoir about confronting his battle with bipolar dysfunction whereas concurrently constructing an organization, he confronted one explicit drawback: he didn’t have any associates.
“For me, it is easy. Construct an organization primarily based on an issue that you just personally have. And after 15 years in New York Metropolis, I moved again dwelling to Chicago. I assumed it will be nice as a result of I’ve acquired household right here and associates right here. After which I noticed I missed one thing…I really did not have associates right here,” Dunn mentioned.
That painstaking realization turned the catalyst for his social media app, which is on a mission to defeat social isolation. Isolation can happen throughout main life transitions, similar to shifting to a different metropolis, courting, getting married and having youngsters, based on Dunn. Recognizing there was not an organization that addressed this want, Dunn set out on a mission to fill the hole available in the market.
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A shot of Bonobos and Pie founder Andy Dunn in 2022. (Pie)
Dunn acquired an organization known as Sparked Connections, to create an AI-powered quiz that matches a bunch of people that will possible get alongside, as he constructed out his platform. With Sparked by Pie occasions, customers reply a number of questions on their pursuits and preferences earlier than being matched with like-minded individuals for curated experiences similar to group dinners or actions like trivia or pickleball.
When somebody has been to no less than three group occasions, retention has been over 70%, based on Dunn.
Concurrently, the app provides alternatives for individuals to attach with like-minded communities at occasions hosted by what Dunn calls “real-life creators.” These creators submit their occasions on the platform with the objective of bringing individuals collectively on a reoccurring foundation for various actions. The most effective of them host gatherings each week, he mentioned.
Kyle Casaccio, a creator primarily based in Chicago, is considered one of them. He kicked off Sunday Morning Membership in Chicago as a New Yr’s Decision and in the present day, it’s pulling in individuals from close by states seeking to make associates in an period more and more consumed by life on-line.
Kyle Casaccio’s Sunday Morning Membership in Chicago. (Kyle Casaccio)
“Like most individuals, I spent each Sunday being hungover – laying on my sofa, watching Netflix, ordering DoorDash, and doing a complete lot of nothing,” Casaccio informed FOX Enterprise. “I made a decision that I needed to take again a day in my life and needed to get one thing out of it, as a substitute of losing it. I assumed why can we waste at some point out of the week? It didn’t make sense to me. I made a decision to do the alternative of that, spending high quality time outdoors, maintaining a healthy diet, assembly new individuals and being lively.”
What began with solely seven individuals, quickly grew to lots of by their fifth assembly. One individual drove 5 hours from Dearborn, Michigan, to the meetup spot in Chicago simply to hitch in, Dunn recalled.
“That was considered one of these moments as a founder the place you understand, okay, what I believe we’re constructing really is one thing individuals actually, really want,” Dunn mentioned.
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For the primary two years, although, Dunn admitted the idea didn’t work. Initially, the corporate centered on one-to-one matching, although Dunn shortly acknowledged that “you may’t cram a courting expertise right into a platonic friendship formation like that.”
He modified course after studying therapist Dr. Marissa Franko’s ebook “Platonic,” which emphasizes that friendships are constructed by repeatedly encountering the identical individuals in a bunch setting and ultimately, opening up to one another.
Immediately, his app is obtainable to customers in Chicago, Austin, Texas, and within the San Francisco Bay Space, but it surely already has over 250,000 individuals viewing plans every month, with 50,000 actively becoming a member of.
“These of us have realized, okay, this is not simply an occasions platform. That is really a solution to how I construct a greater social life,” Dunn mentioned.
A gaggle gathering for Kyle Casaccio’s Sunday Morning Membership in Chicago. (Kyle Casaccio)
Dunn has no plans to cease right here, saying that after he figures out “how the monetization engine works,” referring to customers buying tickets for group match plans by means of the Sparked by Pie product, he plans to begin rolling out the app to extra cities.
The corporate can also be exploring AI-generated bios for consumer profiles and piloting AI to assist seed group chats earlier than contributors meet in individual.
A gaggle gathering for pickleball at Kyle Casaccio’s Sunday Morning Membership in Chicago.–>
“You are able to do magical issues with AI to create nice outcomes on human connection, with the main target not being on connection within the app, however getting individuals within the app after which off the app,” he mentioned.
