IRL App

IRL, an acronym for In Real Life, was a social networking company founded in 2017 by Abraham Shafi, with Scott Banister, Krutal Desai, and Henry Khachatryan also cited as co-founders. Shafi, who previously co-founded and sold the recruiting platform getTalent.com, envisioned IRL as a platform to counteract the social disconnection he felt from other social media apps. The company was established to facilitate real-world interactions by helping users, primarily targeting Gen Z, to discover events and organize get-togethers.

The platform functioned as an app-based social calendar, allowing users to organize plans, discover nearby events, form interest-based groups, and communicate through group chats. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the service adapted by pivoting to include the discovery of virtual events on platforms like Twitch and YouTube, which maintained its relevance. The business model was intended to avoid traditional advertising, instead focusing on potential subscription products, including revenue sharing with influencers for paywalled group chats, similar to Discord's Nitro plan.

IRL garnered significant attention from investors, raising a total of $200 million over four funding rounds. A pivotal moment came in June 2021 with a $170 million Series C funding round led by SoftBank's Vision Fund, which propelled the company to a valuation of $1.17 billion, granting it "unicorn" status. Other notable investors included Goodwater Capital, Founders Fund, and Floodgate. At its peak, the company claimed to have 20 million active users.

However, the company's trajectory took a dramatic downturn. Employee skepticism grew regarding the legitimacy of the user metrics. This led to an internal investigation by the board of directors, which revealed that approximately 95% of its 20 million reported users were automated bots. In December 2022, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) began an inquiry into whether IRL had misled its investors. Subsequently, CEO Abraham Shafi was suspended in April 2023 amid allegations of misconduct. The company laid off 25% of its staff and ultimately announced its shutdown on June 26, 2023, with the app formally ceasing operations the next day. Following the shutdown, the SEC charged Shafi with defrauding investors out of approximately $170 million by misrepresenting the company's growth and user base.

Keywords: IRL app, Abraham Shafi, social calendar, event discovery, Gen Z social network, SoftBank Vision Fund, venture capital, startup failure, bot users, SEC investigation, social networking, get-togethers, group messaging, unicorn status, startup shutdown, investor fraud, Get Together Inc, Scott Banister, virtual events, community building