It’s a tough environment for a founder trying to build the next-generation Facebook.
With more apps than ever and the mainstay social media giants dominating people’s screen time, the competition is fierce. Investors, meanwhile, are pining after flashy AI deals.
There was a peak in venture capital investment in social startups in 2021 — when apps like BeReal and Clubhouse were getting people excited for new challengers taking on Instagram and TikTok — according to PitchBook data, and the number of deals has declined each year since.
That 2021 peak saw 239 deals totaling $2.2 billion, per PitchBook’s data of US transactions. In 2025, PitchBook…
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