IRL social startup Pie has raised $11.5 million in Series A funding led by Forerunner Ventures. Founded by Bonobos' Andy Dunn, Pie focuses on in-person connections and events. Pie plans to use the funding to support event creators and scale to other events. market.
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Social networking startups are ditching online friends and followers for real, face-to-face connections.
Chicago-based startup Pie, founded by Andy Dunn of menswear brand Bonobos, is joining the race to help people make friends.
One of many emerging “IRL social” apps, Pie allows users to plan and participate in IRL hangouts. The app already has an AI assistant and is testing an enterprise offering.
“The battle for offline attention is the next big thing in the consumer world,” Dunn told Business Insider.
As U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy declares a loneliness epidemic and social media users grow weary of their online lives, Posh (a sort of TikTok feed for events) and 222 (a place where strangers can share dinners and events) Startups like “How to meet people'' have appeared. raised venture capital this year for an app aimed at helping people find friends.
Pie recently announced that it has raised $11.5 million in Series A led by Kirsten Green of Forerunner Ventures. Chicago-based fund Origin Ventures and Twitter co-founder Ev Williams also participated in the round. The latest round brings Pie's total capital to $24 million, according to the company.
Build and grow an app to make friends
Like many startups, Pie had to pivot. It was launched in 2020 as a friend matching app similar to Bumble Friends.
“There were a lot of matches, a lot of profile views, but no one wanted to contact the person,” Dunn said.
Dunn said she was back to square one after reading Dr. Marisa Funko's book “Platonic.'' Just scrolling through potential friends doesn't work. Regular group hangouts were necessary for people to meet and stay connected.
Pai, along with his Chicago-based team of 10 people, focused on building the IRL app and using Chicago as a testing ground.
“Chicago doesn't have the same saturation of consumer apps as New York City, Los Angeles or San Francisco,” Dunn said.
In February and March, the startup began testing locally curated events in Chicago called “Pie Originals,” including a monthly silent book club and bimonthly “Dudes Getting Pancakes” hangouts. Dan attributes the app's growth to this strategy. After testing Pie Originals for six months, we reached 20,000 monthly active users.
Local event creators like Mary Doctor, who hosts show-and-tell events for adults, use Pie to attract people and make money.
“There's a whole creator economy that's trying to connect people directly,” Dunn added.
Pie is leveraging its Series A funding to roll out a creator fund for event organizers. This fund pays creators $5 for every RSVP to the event (all attendees are free).
The startup plans to experiment with different monetization models, looking at the potential of the freemium model that apps like Bumble and Hinge have opted for.
“This is a venture-backed startup,” Dunn said, adding that the monetization engine will be established by Pie's Series B. “There are costs, but you'll see the returns later.”
Meanwhile, Dan is betting on Pie's Gen Z staff and app user growth (up 40% month over month).
Read the 31-page pitch that Andy Dunn used to launch Pie's Series A.
Note: Pie has edited the details and fixed some pages so that the document can be shared externally.
