Investor deck · May 2026 · Confidential

Linger
longer.

The friend-finder for people who'd rather meet over coffee than match online.
linger.city · hello@linger.city
Series Seed · $3M target
The moment

1,200 followers.
Nobody to call.

It's Saturday afternoon. You just moved to a new city, or your friend group just scattered, or you simply realized you haven't done anything fun in a month.

You open your phone. You scroll through hundreds of people you "know." You don't text any of them. You re-watch a show instead.

This is the gap Linger was built to close.

Saturday · 2:47 PM
@yourname
1,200 followers
02 / 14
The friendship recession

A real, measurable crisis.

Loneliness is the public health crisis nobody talks about at parties — because we're not at parties.

2×
Loneliness doubled since 2003
Adults today spend twice as many hours alone as two decades ago, and 70% less time with friends.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics · American Time Use Survey
59%
Of adults say making friends gets harder after 30
Once school and the office stop doing it for you, the default "happens to me" playbook breaks.
Pew Research · 2024 Friendship Survey
$406B
Annual global cost of social isolation
The Surgeon General declared loneliness a public health crisis — on par with smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
U.S. Surgeon General Advisory · 2023
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Our thesis

Technology was supposed to connect us.
Mostly, it just put a glass wall between us.

Linger replaces the scroll with the stoop, the swipe with the sidewalk. We're not asking for more screen time. We're asking for less.

04 / 14
Why now

Three tipping points, all hit at once.

Loneliness is finally on the public agenda

The 2023 U.S. Surgeon General advisory put a federal frame on the problem. School districts, employers, and insurers are now actively funding interventions.

Swipe-app fatigue is real

Match Group revenue declined for the first time in 2024. Gen Z reports the lowest dating-app satisfaction on record. The category is open for what comes next.

Remote work scattered everyone

The office that used to be the default friend-making engine is gone for 35% of professionals. The new infrastructure for adult friendship hasn't been built — yet.

05 / 14
Introducing

A location-based platonic friendship app.

We help nearby people find each other, suggest a low-pressure hangout, and actually meet in person.

Nearby, not algorithmic
Distance shown as walking time, in your neighborhood — not in a global feed.
Platonic, not romantic
Built explicitly for friendship. "Treating Linger as dating" is a reportable offense.
Structured, not chat-loop
Skip 200 messages of small talk. Pick an activity, a place, a time. Send the invite.
hey 👋
coffee?
let's hike

Make friends,
not matches.

Linger finds people nearby who share your vibe — no dating, no pressure.

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How it works

Three steps. No swiping.

Step 01

Tell us your vibe

16 interests, multi-select. Drives every match downstream.

☕ Coffee 🥾 Hiking 🎲 Games 🎸 Music 🎨 Art 🍳 Cooking
Step 02

Discover nearby

People in walking distance, shared interests highlighted, verified ✓.

Step 03

Suggest a hangout

Activity, venue, time — proposed automatically from shared vibes and walk-time. Two taps to send.

SAT 10:30 ☕ Compass Coffee
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Why we win

Everyone else is solving a different problem.

Bumble BFF Meetup Friended Linger
Built for platonic, not dating Bolt-on mode ✓ ✓ ✓
Hyperlocal · walking distance Citywide Event-based Anywhere ✓ <1 mi
One-tap "suggest a hangout" Chat first No 1:1 Online only ✓
Sustainable revenue model Boost packs Organizer fees Ads ✓ 3 streams
AI-assisted trust & safety moat Manual queue None None ✓ 1hr SLA
Built-in safety center & verification Photo only None None ✓
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Product

Three taps from "I'm new here" to "see you at 10:30."

Discover
5 people · SoMa
Maya, 29 · 0.4 mi
3 shared interests
👋 Hi
Devon, 31 · <1 mi
2 shared
👋 Hi
Ren, 27 · 1.2 mi
4 shared
👋 Hi
Priya, 33 · 0.8 mi
2 shared
👋 Hi
Suggest a hangout
with Maya
WHAT
☕ Coffee
🚶 Walk
WHERE
📍 Compass Coffee
WHEN
Sat
Sun
Send to Maya
Plans
3 upcoming
☕ Coffee · Maya
Sat 10:30 AM · Compass Coffee
Confirmed
Directions
Message
🎲 Games · Ren
Sun 7 PM
Pending
09 / 14
Market opportunity

A $14B market the swipe apps left behind.

Market sizing is illustrative and forward-looking.
TAM
$14B
Global friendship & social discovery
SAM
$4.2B
North America · 25–44 urban adults
SOM
$180M
Top 30 US cities · 3yr target
~180M

U.S. adults aged 25-54, the core friendship-after-college demographic.

$5.4B

Match Group revenue, 2024 — declining for the first time. Friendship is the next category.

1% in 3 years

The conservative target: 1 in 100 urban adults on Linger within three years.

10 / 14
Business model

Three streams, all aligned with the user.

Most friendship apps die because monetization conflicts with the value prop. Ours doesn't — every revenue stream gives users more of what they already came for.

01 · Subscription

Linger+

$4.99/mo · $39/yr
Unlimited say-hi's, see who said hi to you, travel mode, members-only events, ad-free.
  • Removes self-imposed caps
  • Heaviest users pay willingly
  • Predictable MRR
02 · Sponsored venues

Hangout partners

$0.40 / click · $4 / booked visit
Local cafés, parks, bookshops pay to be the meetup spot. Performance-based pricing only.
  • Labeled "Sponsored" transparently
  • Plus members see none
  • Better economics than ads
03 · Curated events

Members-only meetups

$8–$25 ticket · 10% take
Run clubs, pottery nights, board games — hosted by vetted "Linger Mayors" in each city.
  • Best cold-start onboarding tool
  • Designed to be our strongest retention tool
  • Becomes the social spine of a city
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Where we are

The DC metro decides where we land first.

We're density-first: we open a neighborhood only when it reaches real critical mass — about 500 active members. The DC-area neighborhood with the most people on the waitlist goes first.

Dupont · Logan, DC
In the running
Capitol Hill, DC
In the running
Shaw · U Street, DC
In the running
Arlington, VA
In the running
Old Town Alexandria, VA
In the running
Bethesda, MD
In the running
Step 1
Reach real launch density
~500 active in one DC-area neighborhood
Step 2
Prove willingness to pay
Convert the waitlist to founding members
Step 3
Open the next neighborhood
Repeat the density playbook
12 / 14
The ask

$3M to make Saturday afternoon better.

Engineering & product
iOS, Android, backend, discovery, payments, venue attribution, admin tooling
$1.35M
Trust & safety
Lead, moderators, verification, hotline + AI-assisted moderation pipeline (1-hour SLA)
$650K
City launch & marketing
Density events, venue partnerships, host network, local PR, referrals
$550K
Legal, compliance, insurance, admin
Formation, privacy, contracts, cyber/liability, accounting, payroll
$450K
$3M
Seed round
Co-led, $1.5–2M targeted from lead. Open to strategic from social/health & welfare.
18-month runway
AI moat · T&S
AI-leveraged trust & safety lets us run the 1-hour SLA at a fraction of Match Group's per-user moderation cost.
13 / 14
The world we're building

Making a friend nearby should be
as easy as ordering coffee.

We've spent fifteen years connecting people online. The next ten are about getting them back in the room together. Linger longer.
Linger.
hello@linger.city · linger.city
14 / 14