For those who’ve been feeling lonely over the previous few years, you’re not alone. In accordance with a 2023 report from the U.S. surgeon basic, about half of U.S. adults reported feeling lonely, even earlier than the COVID-19 pandemic. The report warns that loneliness and isolation can result in bodily penalties, resembling a 29% elevated threat of coronary heart illness and a 32% elevated threat of stroke.
A brand new app referred to as Buffet is aiming to handle the loneliness epidemic by serving to customers meet new folks by shortly matching them with an individual and a spot to fulfill up (suppose Tinder + OpenTable). The app is designed to take away the boundaries and hassles that include assembly new folks after which looking for a spot to hang around. Buffet goals to assist customers meet likeminded people, whether or not they’re on the lookout for a brand new pal, romantic associate or fitness center buddy.
At launch, Buffet is offered in Los Angeles, with expansions deliberate for extra cities later this yr, beginning with New York Metropolis.
The app is the brainchild of Buffet CEO Wealthy Hacking and COO Sean Emery. The pair labored as monetary analysts earlier than beginning Buffet and got here up with the concept for the app whereas they had been on a enterprise journey in Dubai.
“We began throwing this concept round, and thought, hey, there’s one thing there,” Hacking informed . “We noticed the loneliness epidemic and noticed that the market was in want of one thing new. The huge incumbents have lacked innovation within the final decade. There was an apparent key alternative for disruption. So we put one foot in entrance of the opposite and began constructing Buffet.”
To get began with Buffet, customers enter 5 of their pursuits, resembling bikes, horseback using or studying. The app then asks a sequence of 5 inquiries to get a greater understanding of their persona and what sorts of locations and folks they’d be concerned with.
Picture Credit: Buffet
Buffet’s algorithm then pairs customers. If , they’ll ship an invitation to the particular person they’re matched with; the matched pair can then message one another through the app to resolve on a time and date to fulfill. Buffet is designed to permit folks to do a lot of the speaking and getting-to-know-each-other in-person. Buffet encourages folks to transcend a chatbox and digital communication and truly meet up in the actual world.
If there’s a match with somebody, however the app-suggested assembly place isn’t a great match, customers can select from a listing of different locations that is perhaps extra fascinating. And if customers aren’t concerned with their match companions, they’ll refresh and get matched with another person.
Buffet’s goal demographic is individuals who have been affected by the loneliness epidemic probably the most: 18- to 25-year-olds. The app additionally desires to focus on younger professionals within the late to early 30s. Hacking believes that if Buffet can win over the common 25-year-old feminine skilled, it might win over anybody.
“The app will probably be free to make use of for the foreseeable future,” Hacking stated. “We wish to win over customers. We wish to construct belief and proper now, whenever you learn the market, persons are pissed off with all the paywalls.”
When it comes to the app’s enterprise mannequin, Buffet will leverage promoting. The corporate plans to construct up an in-app neighborhood discussion board the place native companies would have the ability to promote on to customers and promote completely satisfied hours and different reductions.
The app is presently solely obtainable on iOS, however the firm plans to launch an Android app sooner or later.
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