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She said the majority of servers were actually friend-to-friend or few-to-few groups with between five and 15 people. Loar watched this trend emerge on Discord. Loar said the days of 'one-to-many' social-media interactions are becoming 'less prevalent and people are really seeking real connection.' It's why platforms like Discord have skyrocketed in popularity and why the traditional one-to-many platforms like Facebook and Instagram are pushing features like groups, DMs, or close friends. Loar has her own term for the space she's building in: the 'relationship economy.' 'To me, it's really about creating moments with the people that you love the most.' 'Whatever is not really about creating content like you would on social media,' Loar said.

Social tech in the aftermath of social-media disillusionmentĭefining the space Whatever exists in is a challenge.Ĭalling Whatever a dating app would be reductive lumping it in with productivity apps like Notion or Google Calendar would be too professional and social media is only half accurate - it is social, but it isn't a media platform. Whatever is focusing on helping couples plan dates. Users will still be able to utilize Whatever's tools to make plans with friends, but the startup will focus on 'millennial couples' as it tests these new features. 'Couples will be able to bookmark plans from the discovery feed and turn them directly into date plans,' Loar added. The new iteration of the app will help couples plan dates with an in-app discovery feed with photo and video content compiled from across the internet, including websites like TikTok, Instagram, Yelp, and Eventbrite. 'With this new focus, our goal is to take the work out of planning date night so you can focus on having fun with your partner,' Loar said.

Now, Whatever's team is pivoting its focus to couples and how best to use technology to help couples plan dates and spend meaningful time together. But what we learned is that event attendees or your friends don't want to plan things, they just want you to keep planning things essentially.'īut they also discovered that people were using the app to plan dates.

'We were really focused on type A planners and targeting them and having them bring their friends onto the platform. 'What we ended up learning was that our product was too broad, we felt like our audience was also too broad,' Loar said. The team launched an alpha version in June, which provided users with tools to make calendar invites for outings, poll friends about where to go or what to do, and even use generative AI to prompt ideas for plans.īut months into Whatever's alpha version, Loar and her cofounders saw gaps in the product. Whatever originally sought to be something between a group chat and a calendar invite. An app to make your plans actually happen The team raised a family and friends round earlier this year, which included investments from Discord C-Suite executives like CTO and cofounder Stanislav Vishnevskiy, as well as ex-Discord CMO Eros Resmini, Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince, and a16z's Anjney Midha. Today, Whatever is taking a new approach to helping people make plans and get outside by focusing on couples and date nights. 'It was really centered around helping you and your friends make IRL plans to build stronger relationships.' 'Originally, when we started Whatever, our goal was just to get your plans out of the group chat and into the real world,' she said. Loar's project took the form of Whatever, a new app she's building with two former Discord colleagues who joined her as cofounders, Kevin Wilson and Zack Zapasnik. Loneliness wasn't just a problem for Loar - it's an epidemic, according to US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy. So in 2021, after working at Discord for more than five years, Loar left to build her own solution for the loneliness she felt.

'During the pandemic, I realized how I was taking IRL experiences for granted and working remotely, spending less time with friends, I just felt extremely isolated,' Loar said. And when the COVID-19 pandemic made everyone stay at home, that anxiety paired up with loneliness. Like many other social-media users, Loar began to avoid posting to apps like Twitter (now called X), and even deleted her Facebook. This story is available exclusively to Business InsiderĪnd start reading now. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders.

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