Friendship Requires Showing Up
You can't be friends with someone you've never met. Yet somehow you have 500 "connections" you've never seen.
ForReal fixes that. Meet in real life, or you're not connected. It's that simple.
Let's Be Honest
You have 500+ LinkedIn connections.
You've met maybe 10% of them.
You follow 1,000+ people on Instagram.
You couldn't pick most of them out of a lineup.
Your DMs are full of "we should grab coffee sometime."
That was 2 years ago. You never grabbed coffee.
You're "well-connected" but completely isolated.
Because these aren't connections. They're just names in a database.
Every social network is designed to keep you scrolling. Not meeting. Just collecting. Fake friends. Fake engagement. Fake connection.
Our Radical Idea
What if social networks actually required you to be... social?
No Meeting = No Connection
On ForReal, you're either friends because you've met, or you're planning to meet. That's it. No in-between. No "maybe someday." No collecting people like Pokemon cards.
Connections Expire
Don't meet within a year? The connection disappears. Because if you can't find time to meet someone in 365 days, you're not actually friends. You're just pretending.
Show Up or Get Out
This sounds harsh. It's supposed to. We're done with the fake version of friendship where knowing someone's name and seeing their vacation photos counts as a "relationship."
Friendship isn't following. It's not liking posts. It's not collecting connections. Friendship is showing up.
How ForReal Works
It's stupidly simple. Because it should be.
Share Your Link
Send forreal.social/yourname to anyone you're connected with online but have never met.
"Hey, we've been connected for 2 years. Let's actually meet. forreal.social/david"
They Choose: We've Met or Let's Meet
If you've already met: They confirm and commit to meeting again. If you haven't: They pick coffee, lunch, or dinner.
No vague "sometime." Actual commitment. Actual intent.
You Actually Show Up
You meet. You have a real conversation. You shake hands. You make eye contact. You remember what it's like to connect with an actual human.
Revolutionary concept, we know.
Meet Again or Connection Expires
After your first meeting, you're connected on ForReal. But if you don't meet again within a year, the connection disappears.
Because what's the point of a "friend" you never see?
What ForReal Doesn't Have
And we're proud of it.
No Feed
We're not here to waste your time scrolling.
No Likes
We're not here to validate your existence.
No Algorithm
We're not here to manipulate your attention.
No Ads
We're not here to sell you shit.
No Fake Connections
We're not here to let you pretend you have friends.
What ForReal Does Have
One Thing: It Forces You to Actually Meet
That's it. That's the whole app. And it's enough.
The Rules
Simple. Non-negotiable.
You must have met in person OR commit to meeting within 30 days to connect.
After connecting, you must meet at least once per year or the connection expires.
No feed, no likes, no scrolling. Just a list of people you've actually met.
If someone asks to meet and you ignore it, they can't ask again for 6 months.
These rules seem extreme. They're supposed to. Because the current version of "friendship" is broken.
The Uncomfortable Truth
You don't have 500 friends. You have 500 names in a database.
You're not "well-connected." You're well-collected.
That person you've been "meaning to grab coffee with" for 3 years? You're not going to grab coffee. Stop pretending.
Every "connection" that doesn't involve actual face-to-face meeting is a lie you're telling yourself.
Friendship requires showing up. Not following. Not liking. Not messaging. Showing up.
ForReal is for people who are done lying to themselves.
ForReal Is For You If:
You have hundreds of "connections" but feel completely isolated
You're tired of "we should grab coffee sometime" that never happens
You miss what friendship felt like before it became collecting followers
You're ready to have 10 real friends instead of 500 fake ones
You actually want to meet people, not just collect their profiles
You're willing to let connections expire if you don't show up
ForReal Is NOT For You If:
You think "networking" means collecting LinkedIn connections
You're satisfied with liking posts as a substitute for friendship
You want another place to scroll mindlessly
You think you're too busy to meet anyone (you're not, you're just not prioritizing it)
You want to keep pretending your 500 connections are actual relationships
Why I Built This
David Kanel
Connect on LinkedInI built companies. Raised venture capital. Did all the things you're supposed to do in tech.
Somewhere along the way, I became "well-connected." thousands of LinkedIn connections and followers. I could DM almost anyone I wanted.
I was also completely alone.
Not lonely. Alone. There's a difference. Lonely is wanting connection. Alone is being surrounded by "connections" and realizing none of them are real.
Every coffee chat was networking. Every lunch was strategic. Every "we should hang out" was performative. I had hundreds of people I could message. I had maybe three I could actually call.
Then I stepped away from it all to figure out what the hell I was doing with my life. No office. No startup. No LinkedIn posts to write. Just me and the question I kept avoiding:
When's the last time I showed up for someone? Not networked. Not connected online. Actually showed up?
I couldn't remember.
That's when I realized: every social network is optimized for connection, not friendship. They want you engaged, not together. They measure followers, not face-to-face meetings.
So I'm building ForReal. Not because I think it'll be the next big social network. Because I need it to exist. Because I'm tired of pretending that knowing someone's name and seeing their updates counts as friendship.
Friendship requires showing up. If you're ready to show up, join the waitlist.