Rent a Cyber Friend will pay you to talk to strangers online and will show off its platform at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025

Francesco Vitali volition beryllium the archetypal to admit that erstwhile his co-founder Chris Siametis archetypal pitched him connected Rent a Cyber Friend, helium didn’t rather get the idea.

“Who’s going to wage idiosyncratic to talk with somebody?” Vitali told TechCrunch. “But Chris was insistent. Chris is simply a millennial, and I’m Gen X, truthful it wasn’t casual for maine to recognize his vision.”

Vitali had worked with Siametis for astir 2 decades together; they ran 48FILM, an international abbreviated movie festival (Vitali is besides a movie producer). So, helium took a leap of religion to spot his collaborator connected the thought helium couldn’t shake: a video chat level wherever radical tin wage per infinitesimal for a casual speech with a “cyber friend.”

Rent a Cyber Friend ballooned to 3 cardinal registered users without raising task superior oregon spending immoderate wealth connected marketing. The institution doesn’t adjacent person societal media due to the fact that it’s excessively short-staffed to give resources to it. The startup is portion of Startup Battlefield, and volition beryllium presenting astatine TechCrunch Disrupt astatine the extremity of this period successful San Francisco.

The company’s accelerated maturation proved Vitali’s archetypal reactions wrong, but arsenic helium utilized the merchandise himself, helium began to recognize that there’s a large marketplace for quality transportation — particularly successful a clip erstwhile radical are paying to speech to AI bots.

“Loneliness is the biggest illness successful the satellite close now,” Vitali said. “Millions are lonely, and they are underemployed oregon seeking purpose. So, we built a level wherever quality clip has worth again, and a spot wherever being quality is important.”

Cyber friends are archetypal vetted to verify their identity, and past they tin acceptable a per-minute complaint to complaint for their conversations; the level keeps 20% of that fee. People aren’t conscionable paying for companionship. Some cyber friends complaint a higher complaint if they’re an world oregon vetted adept successful a circumstantial taxable area, oregon if they talk a peculiar connection that a idiosyncratic would similar to practice.

For immoderate societal media level — particularly 1 that connects radical successful real-time video chats — information and contented moderation is simply a challenge. Vitali notes that the level has a artifact feature, but arsenic the institution continues to grow, it volition request to put further successful maintaining a steadfast environment. He said that adjacent connected the merchandise roadworthy representation is simply a much robust and businesslike strategy for vetting imaginable cyber friends much rapidly and thoroughly.

Vitali’s turning constituent came not agelong aft the institution launched erstwhile helium connected with a 19-year-old from China. He noticed that this idiosyncratic was 1 of the site’s astir progressive users, and helium spent $200 per time to speech to people. Vitali rigged the tract truthful that helium would beryllium the lone cyber person disposable and utilized the accidental to inquire the idiosyncratic astir his acquisition without revealing that helium founded the company.

“He said, ‘I don’t consciousness harmless to spell retired astatine the promenade and conscionable with strangers, but this tract gives maine the anticipation to speech civilization and conscionable radical from each implicit the world,’ and that was the archetypal infinitesimal that I realized we person thing here,” Vitali recalled.

He inactive thinks that the connections that radical marque successful idiosyncratic are irreplaceable. But connected an net wherever radical are sucked into addictive oregon dangerous connections with AI chatbots that are designed to maximize engagement, this measurement of turning toward humanity means thing to him.

If you privation to larn much astir Rent a Cyber Friend from the institution itself — portion besides checking retired dozens of others, proceeding their pitches, and listening to impermanent speakers connected 4 antithetic stages — articulation america astatine Disrupt, October 27 to 29, successful San Francisco. Learn much here.