*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).

Share:
More In Technology
A Closer Look at the Gaming Sector and its Future in the Metaverse
The gaming industry has been under the spotlight so far this year following some big mergers and acquisitions. This week featured earnings of three major gaming companies, but also Meta and for the latter, things are not doing too hot. Joining Cheddar News to break it all down was Kenny Rosenblatt, President and Co-Founder of Arkadium.
Amazon Strong Growth Attributed to the Cloud Despite Retail Headwinds
While it was a volatile week in tech as Meta experienced the biggest one-day drop in the history of the U.S. stock market, industry giant Amazon reported 40 percent growth — largely on the strength of the cloud. Dan Ives, managing director of equity research at Wedbush Securities, joined Cheddar News to break down how the e-commerce company stock managed to pop despite headwinds against its core retail business. "It's all about cloud because of sum of the parts, you could argue, amazon could be $3,500/$4,000 stock just based on cloud," he said. Ives also addressed the apparent the differing impact of Apple iOS changes on Facebook and Snapchat.
Investors May Be Wary of Ford Due to Ongoing Supply Chain Issues
Following Ford's earnings miss, the stock price dropped despite a bullish outlook from the auto giant. Karl Brauer, an executive analyst with ISeeCars.com, joined Cheddar to break down why investors may not be sold on the carmaker because of the ongoing factor of supply constraints. "The product is not an issue. There's really good product coming from them, including the electric vehicle side, and the demand is not an issue. There's plenty of demand, but nobody really has a solid grasp on when we're going to get past the supply chain issue," said Brauer.
Pinterest Reports Strong Q4 Earnings Beat
Image-sharing app Pinterest reported big beats on its Q4 earnings for the top and bottom lines. The social platform surprised investors after seeing a decline in users while earnings and revenue were much higher than expected.
Load More