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 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
- Alexis Barreyat (prev. media production @GoPro)
- Kévin Perreau (prev. digital project manager @Opteamis)
comps
why BeReal.
- millennials and gen z’rs are looking for an alternative to traditional social media which encourages the creation of an unrealistic virtual self, caused by facetune, filters, and posing
- will this be enough to overcome the fact that ~80% social media users abandon apps after first use?
REDEFINING VENTURE