Francesco Vitali will be the first to admit that when his co-founder Chris Siamatis first told him about Rent a Cyber Friend, he didn’t understand the idea.
“Who would pay someone to talk to someone?” Vitaly told TechCrunch. “But Chris was insistent. Chris is a millennial, and I’m Gen X, so it wasn’t easy for me to understand his perspective.”
Vitali had worked with Siamatis for almost two decades; they ran 48filmOne International Short Film Festival (Vitaly is also a film producer). So, he took a leap of faith and trusted his colleague with an idea he couldn’t shake: a video chat platform where people could pay per minute for casual conversations with a “cyber friend.”
Hire a cyber friend to 3 million registered users without raising venture capital or spending any money on marketing. The company also does not have social media because there are too few employees to devote resources to it. The startup is part of Startup Battlefield, and will be presented at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco later this month.
The company’s rapid growth proved Vitaly’s first reactions wrong, but as he used the product, he began to realize there was a huge market for human connection – especially at a time when people are paying to talk to AI bots.
“Loneliness is the biggest disease in the world right now,” Vitaly said. “Millions of people are lonely, and they’re unemployed or looking for purpose. So, we created a platform where human time has value again, and a place where being human is important.”
Cyber Buddies are first vetted to verify their identity, and then they can set a per-minute fee for their conversations; The platform keeps 20% of that fee. People aren’t just paying for companionship. Some cyber buddies charge higher rates if they are academic or vetted experts in a specific subject area, or if they speak a particular language the user wishes to practice.
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For any social media platform – especially one that connects people in real-time video chat – security and content moderation is a challenge. Vitaly says that the platform has a block feature, but as the company continues to grow, it will need to invest more to maintain a healthy environment. He said the next step on the product road map is a more robust and efficient system to more quickly and thoroughly screen potential cyber friends.
The turning point in Vitaly’s life came shortly after starting the company when he became involved with a 19-year-old girl from China. They noticed that this person was one of the most active users of the site, and he spent $200 a day to talk to people. Vitaly rigged the site so that he could appear to be the only cyber friend available and used the opportunity to ask the user about his experience, without disclosing that he had founded the company.
“He said, ‘I don’t feel safe going out to the mall and meeting strangers, but this site gives me the possibility to exchange culture and meet people from all over the world,’ and that was the first moment I realized we had something here,” Vitaly recalled.
He still thinks that the relationships people form in person are irreplaceable. But on an internet where people are lured into addictive or dangerous connections with AI chatbots that are designed to maximize engagement, this move to turn towards humanity means something to them.
If you want to learn more about hiring cyber buddies from the company itself – as well as check out dozens of others, listen to their pitches, and listen to guest speakers on four different stages – join us at Disrupt October 27 to 29 in San Francisco. Learn more here.
