Andy Dunn, founder of Bonobos’ online fashion retailer, has now shifted his innovative spirit from fashion to social. His latest project, Pie, is a social application focused on real-life interpersonal connections. With a $11.5 million Series A financing, Pie has attracted more than 130,000 monthly active users in San Francisco and Chicago. However, with the surge in the number of users, how to effectively promote social interaction in offline activities has become a new challenge for Pie.
To solve this problem, Pie acquired Sparked Connections, an AI-driven quiz tool developed by Samir Mahafzah and Sam Stubbs. The tool uses personality tests to predict who participants get along best in specific social events, and divides them into six-person groups to get to know each other in Pie's group chat in advance. This innovative approach not only improves social efficiency, but also enhances user engagement and satisfaction.
For example, in Pie's "Drinking Coffee with Strangers" activity, participants will answer a series of personality test questions about emotional recognition, and the AI algorithm will group them based on the test results. Dunn said that through ChatGPT and user feedback, they gradually understood why people hit it off and believed that without AI, it would be a nearly impossible problem. This AI-driven social matching method not only improves the success rate of activities, but also provides users with a more personalized and accurate social experience.
As Americans’ concerns about loneliness grow, using AI algorithms to help people make friends seems to be a trend. In fact, many people are already stepping into their social life through platforms like Instagram or Bumble. Pie appears in the hope of helping people build real social connections more efficiently through the power of AI. This innovative social model not only changes people's social interaction methods, but also provides a new development direction for future social applications.