Why IRL exists
Everyone knows the plan that never happens. "We should do something sometime." The group chat where plans die, the maybe, the flake.
We have more ways to connect than ever. We tap, we scroll, we swipe. And yet finding something to do together, for real, has never been harder.
IRL is where plans happen.
Maybe it's dinner with people you haven't met yet. ♻️ A Saturday cleaning up the beach with your neighbors. An exhibition, then a long talk about it over coffee. 🤝 Helping someone get a project off the ground. A run, a dance class, or 🪂 that skydive you've been talking about for years but never quite dared to book.
Some things are simply more fun together. Others are only possible because we do them together.
Have an idea? Or just show up.
A dinner, a picnic, a board game night. Put it on IRL, and people nearby join you.
Just want to get out? Find something happening near you this weekend. Something useful, something fun, or something you'd never have thought of doing yourself.
Either way, everyone knows what they're signing up for. People say yes, and they show up.
And who knows? You might make a friend, meet someone special, find your next business partner, or simply have a brilliant afternoon with people you'll never see again.
All of those are good outcomes.
New in town? Open IRL. Nothing planned this weekend? Open IRL. Always wanted to try something but never had anyone to go with? Open IRL.
Three apps, one idea: Bondable for work and professional connections, Hangout for friends and community, and Flirtify for dating. Different reasons to meet. The same idea: do something together, and see what happens.
I'm starting small. There won't be something happening everywhere overnight. I'll learn from real meetups, earn people's trust, and grow from there.
But that's the ambition: something to do, people to do it with, wherever life takes you.
An idea from 2007
In 2007 I was single, and I started building FlirtifyMe, an app to meet people. I never released it. Life happened, other projects happened, and the idea stayed parked.
Almost twenty years later, it's back, much wider. What started as an idea about dating has become something about bringing people together, whatever the reason.
Who's behind it
I'm Luc (Luke, in English), French and Guinean, and I've been the new person in town more times than I can count. Lyon, Michigan, Canberra, Nouméa, Biarritz, Paris, and now Grand-Bassam, in Côte d'Ivoire. Every move brought new friends, new cultures, new ways of doing things, a chance to help and a lot to learn. And every time, the way in was the same: people, and something to do together.
I've been building products since 2000: engineering, product and business, usually all three at once. For ten years I co-founded Afrikrea, later ANKA, which connected African makers with buyers in 175 countries, with a team spread over four continents.
Getting the right people to each other is what I keep coming back to.
Starting solo, not staying solo 🤞
A few years ago, a project this size needed a whole team before it could even start. Today one person can get it off the ground: AI helps me build the apps, run them, and catch fraud and abuse, while a person still decides every report.
Solo is how IRL starts, not where it ends. As it grows, other people will join, bring their ideas and push back on mine.
What won't change: no algorithm decides who should meet whom. The machinery can be as sophisticated as it needs to be. The evening should feel simple.
What if it works?
Everyone has an idea, a project close to their heart. IRL is mine, and I'm finally taking the leap. That's priceless.
If it works, a free evening or a new city will start the same way: you open IRL, and you go.
If it doesn't, I'll have had a fantastic ride, and met a lot of people along the way. Either way, I hope you'll come along.
Come along
IRL is still being built. If you'd like to help shape it, become an early tester. Or just drop me a message.
I read every one: luc at inreallife.technology