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Press & media kit.
Are We Friends? is a friendship-first, privacy-first social network out of Phoenix. If you're a journalist, podcaster, or researcher writing about the loneliness epidemic, the Big Five in social-network design, or solo-built indie tech — please steal anything from this page.
The 30-second pitch
Are We Friends? in one paragraph
Are We Friends? is a quieter social network built by one person in Phoenix to address the adult-loneliness epidemic. Members take a validated 120-item Big Five personality test (IPIP-NEO-120) and are matched with three people nearby who genuinely fit. The built-in AI drafts the first hangout — a real venue, a real time, two conversation starters pulled from the personality overlap. Direct messages are end-to-end encrypted with XChaCha20-Poly1305 + X25519 + Argon2id; private keys never leave the browser. The product optimizes for one number — off-platform meetings per active user per week — not dwell time, not matches, not RSVPs.
Quick facts
Numbers and names you can quote
| Product | Are We Friends? (Friends?) — a quieter social network for real-life friendship |
|---|---|
| Domain | arewefriends.org |
| Founder | Bryan Leonard |
| Headquartered | Phoenix, AZ |
| Parent | Qira LLC |
| Founded | December 2025 |
| Team size | 1 (solo founder + engineer) |
| Funding | Bootstrapped + community round (Wefunder, $5M cap SAFE) |
| Personality instrument | IPIP-NEO-120 (public domain Big Five, 120 items, 30 facets) |
| Encryption | XChaCha20-Poly1305 + X25519 + Argon2id (Bry_NFET_SX) |
| Pricing | Free · Friend+ $7.99/mo · Social $14.99/mo · Founders' $29.99/mo (capped at 1,000) |
| North-star metric | Off-platform meetings per active user per week |
Founder
Bryan Leonard
Bryan Leonard is a solo founder and independent researcher based in Phoenix, Arizona. Before Are We Friends?, he built ImagineQira and developed NFET (Non-Equilibrium Field Theory), a complexity framework applied to traffic, language, and source code. The personality-matching algorithm in Are We Friends? is downstream of that work — the same vector-overlap math NFET uses on intersection flow now ranks human compatibility.
Reach Bryan directly at yourfriend@arewefriends.org. For the full founder bio: /story.
Logos & visual assets
Brand pack
- Wordmark — "Friends?" in our display serif with the coral question mark. Use on light or dark backgrounds.
- Icon — the coral "?" alone, square. Available in PNG and SVG via /icon (PNG) — additional formats on request.
- OpenGraph image — the social unfurl card. Available at /opengraph-image.
- Color palette — Coral
#E2715A, Coral Deep#B85640, Cream#FBF6EC, Ink#141312, Butter#F5D98A, Sage#8FA68E. - Typography — Fraunces (serif headlines, editorial voice) + JetBrains Mono (caps micro-labels) + Inter (body).
- For a higher-resolution brand pack (PNG, SVG, PDF logo set, full palette swatches), email yourfriend@arewefriends.org.
Story angles we'd love
Pre-baked angles for journalists
- One person, one droplet, the loneliness epidemic. The entire stack runs on a single DigitalOcean machine in NYC3 paid for by the founder. No outside funding to date. The social-network-from-one-person angle is genuinely unusual.
- The Big Five quietly winning over MBTI. Are We Friends? uses IPIP-NEO-120 — a public-domain instrument with 20+ years of academic validation — instead of the more famous but scientifically-criticized MBTI. The contrast is a real story.
- End-to-end encryption for non-romantic messaging. Most apps that do E2EE are dating or messaging tools. A friendship app encrypting DMs with the same primitives as Signal is unusual enough to write about.
- City-by-city launch playbook. Friends? launched in Phoenix and rolls into cities one at a time, with a city- specific landing page and live local events feed for each. We can talk about the mechanics of small-city growth at length.
- Solo-founder economics. Free tier, $7.99/$14.99/$29.99 paid tiers, 4-month build, no marketing spend. Real numbers on request.
Frequently asked
Can I republish quotes from this page?
Yes. The text on this page is intended for press use. Attribution to 'Are We Friends? (arewefriends.org)' is appreciated. Quotes attributed to Bryan Leonard should be cleared via email first.
Are screenshots permitted?
Yes — screenshots of the public marketing pages are fair use for editorial coverage. Screenshots of the authenticated product surface (matches, DMs, settings) require advance permission so we can confirm no real user data is shown.
How do I get an interview with Bryan?
Email yourfriend@arewefriends.org with your outlet, deadline, and topic. Bryan does ~2 podcasts and 4 written interviews per month and prioritizes loneliness research, indie tech, and personality psychology coverage.
Do you have user growth numbers you can share?
Topline numbers (signup count, retention, paid conversion) on a quarterly cadence, on request. We don't share individual-user data.
Are you raising funding?
Yes — a community round on Wefunder ($5M cap SAFE) is in progress. Y Combinator + Emergent Ventures applications are also out. Contact for current cap-table state.
Give it five minutes
Meet people who actually fit — and do something real.
Try the product yourself — same flow journalists' subjects experience. Email the founder for follow-ups.