- We are living through “an epidemic of loneliness” – “57% of New York residents felt lonely some of the time or often, and 67% felt socially isolated in the prior four weeks.”
- Making friends as an adult can be difficult, and opportunities to do so have been minimized by the pandemic and remote work
- Hot new app Supermomos solves this problem by curating professionals together in communities to make new friends
- Fun, In-real-life (IRL) events are the core focus for members to connect, enriched by gamification and app-enabled interactions that encourage bonding and a true connection
- In addition to friendship, other benefits of joining the Supermomos community and expanding one’s social circle include finding cofounders, investors, new opportunities, potential hires, and even dating prospects
We are living through “an epidemic of loneliness” and making new friends as an adult is hard
“The Friendship Report,” a global study commissioned by Snapchat in 2019, reported that the average age at which we meet our best friends is 21. The common expectation is that as adults, we don’t need to make new friends, as we should have built up a solid group of friends by now, but that is not always the case for many. In a fast-moving city like New York, friendships can easily fade, priorities shift, lifestyles change, people move away, and one can suddenly find herself friendless, and alas, lonely.
When was the last time you made new friends as an adult? Outside of getting to know colleagues at work, general consensus is that it is not easy to find avenues to meet new people. In a post-covid world where remote work is now commonplace, especially in tech, one of the already few ways of meeting new people in adulthood – at work and in-office – has been taken away, making an already difficult proposition even more daunting.
Outgoing New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Dave A. Chokshi recently declared “an epidemic of loneliness”, citing citywide health surveys that found that “57% of residents felt lonely some of the time or often, and 67% felt socially isolated in the prior four weeks.”
Supermomos helps technology professionals make new friends through curated professional communities that have fun together
There has been no lack of companies trying to address this problem of loneliness, yet none has seemed to have cracked it. The latest mobile app that young professionals have been turning to is Supermomos. It aggregates professionals in similar and adjacent fields within the same city. This taps on the biggest common denominator of most adults – work and profession. Work is where we spend the largest amount of time on and hopefully, what we have strong (or at least some) interest in. The commonality of profession or industry, therefore, becomes one of the easiest foundations for us to build friendships on. People in the same industry are more likely to understand and commiserate with work woes, and more likely to keep in touch due to greater shared experiences.
Supermomos users are grouped into communities according to their profession, and the technology industry is what the company is focusing on initially. Users are mostly young tech industry professionals such as product managers, software engineers, designers, marketers, founders, and investors.
One of the hallmarks of Supermomos is the combination of verified, real identities as well as curation. An invite code is required to join its community via its mobile app, and Supermomos screens each profile before extending an invite code. To ensure an authentic experience, anyone who isn’t in the technology or an adjacent space is not approved. This has led to a much higher quality of attendees and also experience at events.
Supermomos is an amazing community of talented professionals! I’ve met contacts I’ve kept in touch with and I love to learn from them! – Elaine Truong, Group Product Technical Program Manager at Meta
I love the happy hour and everyone I met was super nice and interesting. I feel like Supermomos socials are very different from other socials I’ve been to (in a good way) and it feels like a safe space without any weirdos 🤣 I met a lot of cool people at each event and will keep coming back. – Annie Shieh, Data Engineer at O’Reilly
Deconstructing the Supermomos app and features reveals that there is some science behind the process of making new friends:
1. Attend IRL events as magic happens when people eat, drink, and laugh together in person
In this age where people spend more time on their mobile phones than ever before and attend more meetings on Zoom than in-person, in-real-life (IRL) events are key to building strong communities. It might seem counterintuitive that despite being a tech startup at its core, Supermomos organizes IRL events for its community, and encourages its members to do so. Technology cannot replace the magic of in-person interactions, but it can help to facilitate it, as Supermomos does with gamification and app-enabled interactions at its socials that encourage interaction and makes starting conversations with new people much easier.
Supermomos users also get access to exclusive VIP events and afterparties. Past high-profile events include a sold-out crypto afterparty at Dcentral Miami 2021, discounts for leading Product-focused conferences featuring high-profile speakers such as Product Directors at Netflix and Vimeo, and an informative lunch and learn with the CEO of a national cybersecurity agency.
2. Seek mutual growth through peer learning, knowledge sharing, and advice-giving, which are key to building bonds
Supermomos is ambitious – its mission for great communities is not just focused on in-person gatherings and fun. The startup is also focused on uplifting one another and mutual learning. This is evident in the various features built into its mobile app, such as knowledge battles and discussion boards, where users share interesting questions and advice around a broad range of topics, from what stocks to invest in, to difficulties of dating, to timely topics like whether or not users should transition into web3. Supermomos has built an entire flourishing ecosystem where users can meaningfully connect with one another both on and offline.
3. Find a community and go three times
A piece of advice given by friendship coach Danielle Bayard – Find a group and go three times. This is because real relationships are built up over time and by seeing people over and over again. Supermomos understands this and offers recurring themed events to facilitate. An example is the weekly Techies Thirsty Thursdays events across the different cities that they are in today (New York City, San Francisco, Austin, Miami, and soon Los Angeles).
Being plugged into a community offers various benefits apart from finding new friends. Supermomos shared that many of its users were also hopeful that widening their social circles by joining the Supermomos community would improve dating prospects. Others are similarly optimistic about finding cofounders, investors, new opportunities, and even potential hires through the Supermomos tech community.
Supermomos is currently invite-only, but AlleyWatch readers can request access here! If you’re a professional in the tech sector, ready to make new friends and be part of a meaningful community, request an invite code.
Supermomos also has a few exciting IRL events happening regularly, such as Crypto Tuesdays (starting tonight!) and Techies Thirsty Thursdays.
