Everyme

Everyme was a private social networking application designed for sharing content within small, intimate groups of friends and family. The company was founded in 2009 by Oliver Cameron and Vibhu Norby and participated in the Y Combinator accelerator program in the summer of 2011. Norby later founded b8ta and Origami, while Cameron went on to work on driverless cars at Cruise and Voyage before joining Odyssey.

The service positioned itself as an alternative to mainstream social media, where users might have hundreds of connections, by focusing on private, secure sharing. The core feature of the application was 'Circles' (or Groups), which were private news feeds for specific sets of people like family, co-workers, or close friends. A key technological aspect was its 'Magic Circles' feature, which used a complex algorithm to automatically scan and organize a user's phone contacts and social media connections (from Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn) into these private groups with notable accuracy.

The application was available for iPhone and later as a web app. Users could share text updates, photos with built-in filters, and links. The platform was designed so that individuals without the app could still receive and reply to stories via email or text message, broadening its reach beyond the app's user base. The business model was not based on user fees; the app was free to use. Everyme secured a total of $3.79 million in funding over two rounds from investors including Y Combinator, Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock Partners, CrunchFund, and Tencent. Despite a promising launch in April 2012, the company was ultimately designated as inactive and was acquired by eFamily.com on November 6, 2013.

Keywords: private social network, group messaging, intimate sharing, Y Combinator alumnus, address book integration, automatic grouping, mobile social app, family sharing, private circles, content sharing, social media privacy, Vibhu Norby, Oliver Cameron, eFamily.com acquisition, Andreessen Horowitz portfolio, Greylock Partners portfolio, Tencent portfolio, CrunchFund portfolio, social networking app, photo sharing