
Fola Oluwafemi
1.7K posts

Fola Oluwafemi
@folabuilds
The more you dig into me the more you'll find curiosity. On a mission to digitally augument our social experiences @harpenintrybe


The IRL connection economy is a $400B+ market. And companies are racing to own it. In the last 6 months, $800M+ in capital was deployed on "IRL" bets. @Tinder invested $60M into a new Events feature for connecting matches in-person. They're pivoting to IRL and offering experiences such as speakeasies, raves, and pottery classes. @222place: raised a $10.1M Series A to curate blind social experiences for Gen Z. Personality-matched groups sent to hyperlocal nightlife events. @JagermeisterUSA launched BestNightsVC - the only venture fund in the world dedicated solely to nightlife and IRL connection. 16 portfolio companies across 4 continents. @timeleft: dinner with 5 strangers, every Wednesday. €18M ARR. 6,500 dinners/week across 200+ cities. Dion: members-only social app where the first move is buying someone a real drink, redeemed IRL. 10K members, 30K+ on the waitlist founded by @revekkapal. Pie: Bonobos founder @dunn built an IRL friendship app. $24M raised. 130K+ MAU. @weroad_official: group trips for 20-30 year olds who don't know each other beforehand. $150M valuation. Matchbox: is an algorithm-powered matching platform for IRL events and has powered over 100,000 connections. founded by @liamjmcgregor (prev @MarriagePact) New dating apps like Known @Celesteamadon, Cerca @MylesCerca, and Ditto @AllenWangzian are aiming to improve connection amongst young people. Billion-dollar companies are paying $$$ for community and events leads: - @AnthropicAI: Marketing Events Manager ($255k) - @tryramp: Community Manager ($223k) - @tryramp: Events & Culture Manager ($181k) - @duolingo: Senior Community Manager ($193k) - @NotionHQ: Community Programs Lead Everyone knows the more time we spend online, the more valuable real-life connection becomes. The question isn't whether IRL wins. It's who facilitates it best.














We’ve been working 14-hour days to review all applications. We just need a bit more time, please bear with us! We still have 1,500+ to go.

I'm excited to announce that @wizard_editor is officially in beta here at Story. Our founding team comes from Apple, Disney, Google, and ILM — we're hiring! Come build the future of editing.


2000+ African founders. 4 partners. a VC from a £50 million fund actively booking calls with our founders. and almost no South Africans in the room 😪 that's embarrassing and i'm fixing it if you're building or raising comment SA 🇿🇦 and i'll send you in link 👈

🚨 BREAKING: NVIDIA just removed the biggest friction point in Voice AI They open-sourced PersonaPlex 7B, a real-time conversational model. It listens and speaks simultaneously to handle natural interruptions and overlaps. 100% Open Source.







