Sydney Bradley

3 days ago | businessinsider.com | Nathan McAlone |Sydney Bradley |Dan Whateley |Henry Blodget

AI has venture capitalists back on the prowl for new consumer social startups. "We're on the brink of another big consumer wave," Vanessa Larco, a former NEA partner, told Business Insider. She's launching a new consumer-focused venture firm called Premise. Larco's eyeing consumer-focused AI startups like Midjourney (a generative AI image maker), Tolan (an AI companion platform), and Sitch (an AI-powered dating app).

1 week ago | businessinsider.com | Nathan McAlone |Sydney Bradley |Henry Blodget

While some new dating apps look to the future with AI, others are going back to basics. Myles Slayton, CEO of dating app Cerca, is betting that Gen Z dating app users want their next relationships to come from their already established social circles — not strangers. Cerca, which launched in March, curates matches with mutuals using people's contact lists on their phones. Cerca's users are limited to seeing four profiles a day and find out at 8 p.m. each day whether someone liked them back.

1 week ago | businessinsider.com | Ashley Rodriguez |Jordan Hart |Sydney Bradley |Henry Blodget

The "loneliest generation" will now be able to add their emotional support friend to their Tinder profile. On Tuesday, the dating app launched "Double Date," a feature that allows you to create a joint profile with your bestie and swipe right on other pairs for a group date. Tinder hopes the new feature will be a hit with younger generations, especially Gen Z. Gen Z accounts for over half of its global user base, the company said.

2 weeks ago | businessinsider.com | Nathan McAlone |Sydney Bradley |Samantha Stokes |Henry Blodget

In March, Teddy Solomon said goodbye to Silicon Valley and moved across the country to New York City. The 23-year-old founder of the Gen-Z social app Fizz had spent most of his life in the Bay Area, but was eager to move to what he saw as a buzzy hub for consumer tech. "We realized over the years that New York was becoming hotter than the Bay Area," Solomon told Business Insider. He took the company with him. Fizz moved its 20-plus staffers from Palo Alto to Manhattan's bustling SoHo neighborhood.

2 weeks ago | businessinsider.com | Nathan McAlone |Sydney Bradley |Henry Blodget

It's about time you could send a DM on Threads. Threads, Meta's rival app to Twitter, is officially rolling out a test that lets users send and receive direct messages within the stand-alone app. There's a big catch, though: The test is limited to Hong Kong, Thailand, and Argentina. A Meta spokesperson said the company plans to expand into more markets, including the US, "as soon as possible."Why is this big news for Threads users?