Read the Pitch Deck IRL Social App Clyx Used to Raise $14 Million

“Why is it easier to order a taxi or take out than it is to meet likeminded people near me?” the slide says.

“It turns out Alyx wasn’t the only one struggling to find things to do and friends to do them with in her new home…” the slide says.

Here’s what the slide says:

The Problem

Loneliness is at a record high, as per Harvard Study of Adult Development. This has a direct impact on mental and physical health. With remote work on the rise, Gen Z lack tools to build local community & IRL social lives.

36%: Total respondents seriously lonely

61%: 18-29 Yr Olds seriously lonely

50%: Lacked Connection in past 3 weeks

The slide then includes charts about how the pandemic impacted people’s contact with their friends. It says that young women were most likely to report losing touch with their friends during the pandemic.

The slide also includes the following quote from former US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek H. Murthy:

“The mortality impact of being socially disconnected is similar to that caused by smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day.”

Here’s what the slide says:

Globalisation & Remote work

The world is more physically, culturally and technologically connected than ever.

However, the hyper-connectivity associated with Globalisation comes at the cost of social connectivity and genuine connection. Trends in Globalisation move us away from our tribal traditions of putting roots down, and pushes us towards one of hyper mobility and technologically centric relationships.

The COVID-19 pandemic, a function of our seemingly shrinking global society, deepened our reliance on technology for social connection and further promoted the ‘mobile’ and somewhat nomadic lifestyles that go hand in hand with Globalisation.

Besides the obvious social distancing measures put in place across the world, the Pandemic deepened our ability to live a socially secluded yet virtually connected life. Working from home has become the norm and zooms with family and friends have replaced in person meet ups.

It almost seems counterintuitive but Globalisation and the way it has changed society, coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic have created the perfect storm for loneliness to proliferate.

Here’s what the slide says:

Social Media

While there is no doubt that traditional social media can in some cases benefit those that are lonely, more often than not social media exacerbates the loneliness problem.

Why? Because Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook and other incumbent social media platforms are focused on voyeurism and digital connection, rather than deep and substantive relationships. One is looking at the past experiences of others, rather than creating your own future experiences.

Scrolling through the flood of images of people delighting with their friends can hound lonely people with feelings of deficiency and shame — deepening feelings of being unwanted and magnifying people’s longing for real understanding and connection. More importantly, existing platforms rarely give those that are lonely the tools to exit their spiral of virtual self-loathing.

Again, there is no doubt that our reliance on social media increased exponentially during COVID-19, compounding the issues fundamental to the current social media offering.

“Clyx was founded at Harvard,” the slide says. “In response both to Alyx’s personal experience and the wider loneliness epidemic.”

Here’s what the slide says:

Clyx tells users which local events their friends and communities want to do.

1. Recommend real life events

Clyx uses AI to aggregate all the events happening in a city — yoga classes, concerts, gallery openings.

2. Suggest new friendships

Clyx fosters an environment full of people looking to spend time together IRL. Whether users find an event or create it, they feel comfortable knowing it’s in a space of people with similar values.

3. Empower local communities

Clyx users find communities that grow to play a meaningful role in their lives. Groups reduce social pressure, improve safety, and boost the collective energy of the event.

The app looks a little different now, however.

Some of this has changed since the deck’s creation.

Here’s what the slide says:

Industry Leading Retention Metrics

One of our biggest successes is our user retention in both Miami and London — it reflects the usability, quality, necessity and trust in both the product and brand we have built in the US and UK.

When compared to the incumbent industry leaders the difference is stark. Tinder and Bumble’s combined avg. D30 retention is less than a fifth of Clyx’s.

Why? Our focus on in-person meet ups, friendship and speed of connection means that Clyx users come for friends and stay for the events. Coupled with the quality of content in-app, this puts Clyx at the sharp end of industry retention. The more friends users add and communities they join, the more likely they are to keep engaging with Clyx frequently.

Notably, users that engage in the simplest of in-app actions retain even better than our base case.

“We beta launched Clyx in Miami in 2022 as the official app of Miami Tech Month,” the slide says. “Since our launch we have developed a strong and fiercely loyal user base. We continue to see rapid growth in the city as Clyx users grow new communities and local event hosts flock to Clyx to find their audience.”

“We launched in London in the summer of 2023. Since our launch, we have once again fostered a large group of loyal users located around the city — both students at colleges and young professionals,” the slide says. “We grew even faster in London as we learned many growth hacks — such as starting with key flagship events that trend virally, such as ‘Hot Girl Walk’ and ‘Hot Girl Wine Night.'”

Here’s what the slide says:

Measurable Outcomes

• 462,030 Friendships Made: We foster meaningful connections grounded in compassion, honesty, and empathy.
• 140,713 Events Organised: Embracing the freedom to be myself with those who genuinely understand me.
• 92 Feel Noticeably Happier With Clyx: A survey of our users found that 92% of those who use Clyx were happier with our platform than they were without it.

Here’s what the slide says:

Our reach, demographic and architecture make Clyx the perfect place for brands and venues to advertise:

Ads are aligned with Clyx’s mission

Users are looking for activities and venues to visit; venues are looking for relevant customers. We connect their mutual interests; higher conversion. More similar to Amazon (market place) than Facebook (unrelated adverts).

Friends operate as Micro-Influencers

When a friend joins an advertised event, you are far more likely to want attend that event/venue. As more friends join, this desire to attend only grows and so helps to boost conversion rate for promoted events.

Suggestions informed by our algorithm

We know a lot about our users; their interests, location, propensity to travel, friends activity and more. This allows our algorithm to accurately suggest events to even the best versed organisers.

Here’s what the slide says:

Sony X Clyx

• June 2024 Sony contacted Clyx asking for help marketing the premiere of their new film Fly Me To The Moon; Sony wanted to augment their VIP advanced screening in Miami & allocated part of their marketing budget to Clyx.
• Clyx promoted the event in-app and we were SONY’s best performing distributer.
• We are now discussing a broader partnership to promote all releases

Here’s what the slide says:

Lagniappe: 3 months advertising on Clyx

699 Event Joins

24 Events promoted

Lagniappe, a Miami Wine bar, leveraged our mostly female user base to rapidly grow attendance on Wednesday’s when footfall was typically at its lowest.

Encouraged by the success of their bi-weekly events, Lagniappe now regularly advertise on Clyx. Leveraging the power of our audience; newsletter and app.

Here’s what the slide says:

In-app purchases on Clyx look to monetise actions that are crucial to our ecosystem for creators and more casual users alike.

Namely, during beta testing, Clyx has sought to monetise event creation, community membership and profile visibility.

The fear of missing out and desire to be part of something ensures that prospective community members, event joiners and new users are willing to pay for access and extra visibility. To date Clyx has introduced in-app purchases for:

• Event Promotion — event creators are able to purchase event boosts, which help their event stand out from the crowd.
• Profile Visibility — upon the creation of their profile, users are promoted to boost their profile in our proprietary algorithm. Increasing the speed at which they make friends early on in their Clyx experience.
• Community Joins — in order to join certain exclusive communities users are required to make an in-app purchase.

Here’s what the slide says:

There are a variety of events on Clyx which operate at different scales — some are casual hangouts in the park or coffee meet ups, but others are larger events that hosts want to ticket. Clyx’s product and user community makes it the perfect place for hosts to sell tickets. Why?

Events & Hosts Users Can Trust

Without knowing much about the event host and others going, it can be intimidating to spend on ticketed events. The social element fundamental to Clyx helps to alleviate this purchase anxiety and boosts sales for hosts and in turn revenue for Clyx. If you can see friends are going, you are more likely to buy.

Simple Setup

It takes hosts on average less than a minute to ticket their event on Clyx. They have to create or connect an existing Stripe account to their Clyx profile and set their desired price. We then payout their revenue (minus fees) daily.

End-to-End

Unlike Eventbrite and other ticketing platforms, the user journey isn’t over once they have pressed ‘buy’. Having purchased a ticket, those going can get to know other fellow attendees before the event takes place, improving their experience on the day and the likelihood of repeat purchases.

Here’s what the slide says:

• Alyx van der Vorm, Founder, CEO

  Double John Harvard scholar, Computational Neuroscience. With a passion for running marathons & dislike for the hassle of organising meet-ups.

• Ed Beccle, Product Strategy

  4x Founder (2x exit). App Glorify reached >3mil users in <2 years, backed by A16Z. Understands consumer social & product-led growth.

• Francesco Rapacciuolo, Head of Design

  Former Head of Design at Bumble. Peached due to his experience building friendship products. Previously Head of Design at Musixmatch before exit to Spotify.

• Mike McIntyre, Growth Strategy

  First Product Manager at Instagram. Formerly at Meta. Exited his consumer app Fam after reaching 10M MAU and profitability. Loves running growth experiments & hacks.

• Berk Karaoglu, Engineering

  Ex-Getir database and cohorting specialist with deep experience in consumer apps. Loves making things go faster and making sure we’re built for scale.

It lists the following investors:

• Jack Einhorn
• Peter Dubens
• Francois Reyl
• Matthew Rayes
• Calvin Chan
• Paul Bottino