Friendship, not dating. Five people. One plan.
Four people and one easy plan, already holding your Saturday morning. Say I’m in, or not this week. Meeting someone once is easy; this is built for the second time.
No profile to fill in. No photos. No swiping.
Sample · Silver Lake
Saturday, October 3 · 10:30–12:00
Juniper café → reservoir path
Four people are holding it
You see who is holding the plan before you say yes. Nothing is decided until you do.
“Coffee first. I need to know who’s on team pastry.” Noor, in the group chat
How it works
Each step needs the one before it. The sixth sits under all the others.
You say which slot you’re free for: Friday night, Saturday morning or Sunday brunch.
You get four named people and one concrete plan already holding that slot.
Never: a profile, a feed, or anyone ranking people.
You say something, or you don’t.
You get a week of the others’ voices, and one shared decision, such as coffee first or walk first, written onto the plan.
Never: the chat is read for any purpose unless all five say yes.
You turn up at a named door at a named time.
You get a ticket with when, where, who to meet, cost, access and a named host. Cancelled, moved and missed days are handled plainly.
Never: your phone is tracked, or a missed day is shamed.
You rate the plan, and nobody else. Separately and privately, you say who you’d see again. A note only you read is optional.
You get Kept, privately. Nothing leaves your device until you seal it.
Never: anyone sees a no.
You share only the times you’re free, and edit the invitation in your own words.
You get a second plan with the one person who also said yes, built from the overlap only.
Never: a one-sided answer is revealed, or anyone is confirmed on your behalf.
You can tell a person at the product what happened, block someone, or step off a plan, at any point.
You get a human follow-up, a block that holds, and a host who answers for the plan.
Never: a report goes to the group or counts as a no.
Why five, and what we’re building on
Five is our choice: four others to meet, ten possible pairs, and a table that still fits one conversation. Somebody may be your person; nobody has to be. We treat five as a starting point to test.
A summary we read reports that strangers asked to have a deeper conversation felt more connected afterwards, and had expected it to be more awkward than it was. So we offer one optional question a day, and skipping is as easy as using it.
A summary we read reports that after a conversation, people underestimate how much the other person liked them. So what someone chooses to tell you can reach you, and you can correct anything said about you.
Closeness is associated with time spent together and with everyday talk. So the product is a week of chat, one plan, and a second plan only if you both want it.
These are the ideas we design from. None is a result from our own product, and for some we have read only a summary. The science page says which, and lists what we don’t claim. We don’t claim to reduce loneliness or to build friendship.
Safety
A public place, a named host, and three controls on every plan.
Tell a person at the product what happened. It never goes to the group, never counts as a no, and never changes your sealed answers.
They never appear in your future groups, chats or reveals, and they aren’t told.
Your place reopens. The others aren’t told why.
Dana is the host for the example Saturday. The host answers for the plan, the door and any report about it, and the ticket says who to tell on the day.
This is a demonstration, so no inbox is live yet. The report route is designed and shown; it is not staffed.
Privacy
An optional friendship-satisfaction check-in, offered as published and shown only to the person who takes it. Never used to rate another person, a pair or an event. The science page lists the evidence we use, what each piece can and can’t support, and what we don’t know yet.
One neighborhood. Two groups of five a week, for four weeks. We’d call it working if about half show up, about a third reach a mutual second meeting, and no serious safety issue goes unresolved. Those are thresholds we chose. No benchmark sits behind them.
Saturdays fill one neighborhood at a time, so we’d begin in one. What a host and a venue cost per group is something we don’t know yet.