New Social App Wants You to Hang Out With Strangers
*By Madison Alworth*
Dolo could be your new favorite social platform. The location-based app encourages people to meet in real life ー and do something.
"We wanted to go back a little bit to the basics of what it means to actually connect with people we don't know," said Raja Haddad, the CEO and co-founder of Dolo.
Those basics, according to Haddad, begin wherever the user is.
"We picked location as that context of relevance, because we all share a sense of experience in location," Haddad said in an interview Thursday with Cheddar. "And we figured that technology hasn't figured out a good way yet to connect us and give us a platform to chat with people around us."
On Dolo, users can find someone to play pick-up basketball or ask where to find the best nearby happy hour deals. Users can go by their real name or a pseudonym, and they can mask their picture with a cartoon that is removed for someone who is designated as a friend. Users' accounts are verified by a phone number.
Unlike other social platforms like Facebook, Snapchat, or Instagram that connect users with real-life friends, Dolo wants to connect users with other people online they may not already know, but who are nearby and willing to meet in real life.
Haddad and Ben Vigier, Co-founder and CPO of Dolo, started the business after initially meeting at Apple in 2010. The pair first collaborated on the Apple Store App before Haddad moved onto Apple Watch and Vigier to Apple Pay. Now, their project is Dolo.
Haddad and co-founder Ben Vigier, first met in 2010 when they worked at Apple. With Dolo, they aim to build real-life connections ー a goal shared by a number of social platforms, like Facebook. But the Dolo co-founders said they are trying to learn from Facebook's mistakes.
"Research has shown that in a very connected world, we are feeling very lonely and isolation these days," said Haddad. "It's an opportunity right now, and especially at this time, to sort of build something from scratch, build it with the users in mind, with the respect of what they want and what they don't want, build it with the idea of positive connections, and sort of see where that goes."
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/new-social-platform-wants-you-to-connect-with-strangers).
Esper Bionics CEO Dima Gazda breaks down how they're creating a mind-controlled bionic hand that guest smarter the more you use it, and what this innovation means for the future of the prosthetics industry.
On this episode of Cheddar Innovates: Brightseed Co-Founder breaks down what plant bioactives are, and how they're using the latest technology to study human's biological connections with plants; Esper Bionics CEO breaks down how they re creating a mind-controlled bionic hand that guest smarter the more you use it; Cheddar gets a look at Curiosity Stream's 'Capturing A Black Hole In Our Milky Way.'
The crypto industry is still reeling from Terra's recent crash. The company's blockchain was temporarily halted earlier this month after the collapse of its cryptocurrency Luna (LUNA) and its stablecoin TerraUSD (UST), which led to almost $45 billion being wiped from the tokens' market caps within a week. Now, many are left wondering what Terra's struggles mean for the broader crypto market. Reeve Collins, CEO of the NFT platform BLOCKv, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell from Davos 2022 to discuss.
China's largest ride-hailing company will no longer be listed on the world's largest stock exchange. Didi shareholders voted on Monday to delist from the New York Stock Exchange, less than a year after launching a $4.4 billion IPO with the most significant U.S. share offering by a Chinese company since Alibaba debuted in 2014. Since going public in June of last year, around $70 billion has been wiped from Didi's market value and shares of the company have dropped nearly 90%. Now, Didi is expected to begin preparations to list in Hong Kong. Kevin T. Carter, founder and Chief Investment Officer of EMQQ Global, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Ahead of the Meta shareholder meeting, more than five hundred doctors have jointly sent a letter to investors to hold the Facebook parent accountable for the risks its platforms have posed to the public and mental health. Dr. Rob Davidson, a West Michigan ER physician and executive director of the Committee to Protect Health Care, joined Cheddar News to discuss how medical professionals are coming together to highlight the social media giant's spread of misinformation, especially during the pandemic. "We've seen the direct impacts of misinformation and disinformation that spreads like wildfire on the social media platforms," he said. "Our goal with this letter is to try to get the shareholders of Meta to convince leadership that they need to do a better job."
