BeReal. 📷

#NoFilter

February 01, 2022

a note from us

  • if you recall the origin story of Meta (formerly Facebook), you may remember that its early adopters were college students 🎓

  • recently, BeReal. has taken college campuses by storm in a strikingly similar fashion

  • while the social media landscape has shifted immensely since Zuckerberg published thefacebook.com, there is something quite intriguing about what is trending on campuses today

in a sentence

BeReal. is a social media platform where once a day users have two minutes to capture a non-curated, candid photo to be sent out to their friends; in order to view and respond to friends’ posts, you must first post yourself

  • non-curated: platforms like Instagram & TikTok give users unlimited time to hand-select, edit, and filter their posts; BeReal. forces you to take a picture in real-time ⏰

  • candid photo: your one photo a day takes a selfie and frontal photo simultaneously 🤳

  • respond through realmojis: instead of simply hitting a like button or sending emojis, users send their own reactions to their friends’ post

bulleted version: gone are the #tbt days of posting vacation photos three months after the fact (we all have that friend); its time to admit that tan is long gone 🏝

The Startups Reinventing Social Media - by Rex Woodbury

the basics

  • industry: social media

  • headquarters: Paris 🇫🇷 & Andorra 🇦🇩

  • year founded: 2020

  • company size: < 50 employees

  • users: 2 million globally (up 500% since July)

  • recent investors: a16z, Accel, DST

  • amount raised: 💰 30M (Series A)

due diligence

what we like

  • pushing authenticity: gen z’ers (the most active social media users) are trending towards social platforms that allow them to express their real selves 😀

  • smart growth strategy: we like the fact that BeReal. is targeting a market where both online and face-to-face word spreads fast: college campuses

  • double photo: this tech was tried years ago as an app, but we think it has great potential as a central feature on BeReal.’s platform

potential risks

  • privacy concerns: the company may BeAble to make a profile on you by collecting data of your everyday tasks 😳

  • copycats: as BeReal. continues to grow, who knows which social media giant will try to make their own version 👀

  • retention: after the initial excitement of this new form of social interaction, how does the app plan to keep its users excited?

founder profiles

comps

why BeReal.