Ensō

1. Executive Summary

Enso is a three-sided proximity platform that creates meaningful real-world connections between users, content creators, and physical venues. The platform's core mechanism — the "collision" — leverages the convergence of proximity, declared intent, and mutual interest to create time-limited interactions designed to move people from digital discovery to face-to-face connection.

Unlike dating apps that reduce people to swipeable photos, or social media that reduces presence to content consumption, Enso treats physical co-location as the most powerful social signal available. When two people are in the same place, at the same time, with aligned intentions, and both express interest — that's a collision worth having.

2. The Problem: The Loneliness Paradox

The U.S. Surgeon General declared loneliness a national epidemic in 2023. According to the Cigna/Evernorth 2025 Loneliness in America survey of 7,500 adults, 57% of Americans report loneliness — with Gen Z showing the highest rates of any generation. A GWI study found roughly 80% of Gen Z experienced loneliness in the past year. The APA's 2025 Stress in America findings show 54% of U.S. adults feel isolated often or some of the time.

The root cause is not a lack of platforms — it's that existing platforms optimize for the wrong behaviors. Dating apps reduce human connection to a binary swipe decision made in under three seconds. Social media platforms optimize for passive consumption, not active engagement. Neither platform category leverages the most powerful and natural social signal available: physical proximity with shared intent.

The Platform Fatigue Crisis

The platforms built to connect people are actively failing:

The IRL Counter-Trend

While digital platforms decline, demand for real-world experiences is surging. Live Nation reported $23 billion in 2024 revenue with 151 million fans attending over 50,000 events — up from $22.7B in 2023 (itself a 36% increase over 2022). Over half (53.1%) of event organizers report increased attendance in 2025. Dating-specific events grew 400% on Eventbrite from 2022 to 2023. One-third of Gen Z plan to spend more on events in the coming year, and two in five consumers are willing to pay extra for events focused on community building (Eventbrite 2025 TRNDS). The Kinsey Institute/DatingAdvice survey found 90% of Gen Z prefer meeting people offline.

The Market Gap

Current solutions fall into one of three categories, each with fundamental limitations:

None of these categories address the core human need Enso targets: "I am here, right now, open to this kind of connection — who else is?"

3. The Enso Solution

Enso introduces a new paradigm: intent-based proximity social. Rather than algorithmically matching people based on profile data, Enso facilitates connections between people who are physically near each other and have declared compatible intentions.

The Collision Model

Enso's core interaction is the "collision" — a time-limited, mutual-consent conversation triggered by physical proximity and shared intent. The collision model has four key properties that differentiate it from all existing social interactions:

The Three-Sided Platform

Enso's power comes from serving three complementary user types on a single platform, creating network effects that reinforce each other:

Users drive discovery and collision volume, creating ambient social energy at locations. Creators amplify that energy by broadcasting to local followers, driving foot traffic and event attendance. Venues host and facilitate both, gaining real-time analytics on who's in their space and what they're looking for.

This creates a virtuous cycle: more users at a venue attract more creators, more creators drive more users to venues, and venues invest in tools that enhance the experience for both.

4. Product Architecture

User Mode — The Core Loop

The user experience is designed around a four-step loop that takes someone from passive presence to active connection in under 60 seconds:

Set Intent → Discover Nearby → Send Signal → Collide. Once inside a collision, users have access to real-time chat, location sharing, contact exchange, collision extension (premium), and Cue AI conversation coaching.

Creator Mode

Creators operate a broadcast-first model. They build local followings, then push proximity-triggered broadcasts to followers who are nearby. The creator dashboard provides engagement analytics including broadcast read rates, response rates, and follower growth. Creators can create and promote events, building a local audience flywheel.

Venue Mode

Venues gain visibility into the social dynamics at their location through an 11-screen management suite. The venue dashboard shows real-time collision density, popular intents, and peak activity times. Event management spans 13 screens including creation with ticket tier configuration, QR-based check-in, attendee management, and post-event analytics. Additional tools include a collision heatmap, venue analytics with benchmarking against similar venues, custom intent creation with A/B testing, intent packs, and a 764-line moderation system for managing interactions at the location. Venue operators can onboard via Stripe Connect for direct payouts.

Premium Features

5. Technology Platform

Enso is built on a modern, scalable stack designed for real-time performance and rapid iteration:

Architecture Decisions

The choice of Supabase as a unified backend provides Auth, Realtime subscriptions, Edge Functions, and Storage in a single platform, reducing operational complexity while maintaining PostgreSQL's full power for geospatial queries via PostGIS. The modular service architecture (24 services spanning 6,200+ lines) allows independent development and testing of each feature domain. The backend includes 56 RPC functions and 65 database tables, with 3 Edge Functions handling AI, push notifications, and creator metadata.

Real-time chat uses Supabase Realtime subscriptions on the messages table, providing instant message delivery without polling. The presence system uses a 30-second auto-refresh cycle with explicit RPCs for updating and clearing user presence, ensuring accurate proximity data while minimizing battery drain.

Current Codebase Metrics

6. Market Analysis

Enso operates at the intersection of three large and growing markets: social discovery, local commerce/events, and the creator economy.

Total Addressable Market

Enso sits at the convergence of three large markets. The global online dating market reached $11 billion in 2025 (Straits Research), projected to grow to $19B by 2033 at 7.3% CAGR. The online event ticketing market was valued at $72.84 billion in 2024 (SNS Insider), expected to reach $107B by 2032. The creator economy was valued at $205 billion in 2024 (Grand View Research), with U.S. creator economy at $50.9B (Market.us), projected to surpass $1 trillion globally by 2033 at 23.3% CAGR. The combined TAM across these three converging markets exceeds $289 billion.

Incumbent Decline

The dating app industry is contracting. Bank of America research found global users of Tinder, Bumble, and Hinge declined 6% year-over-year in Q4 2024. Match Group's paying subscribers fell to 14.2 million in Q1 2025, down 5% YoY — the fifth consecutive quarter of payer decline. Tinder's direct revenue fell 7% in Q1 2025 and monthly active users dropped 9%. Bumble's paying users fell 8.7% to 3.8 million, with revenue down 7.6%. Match Group's stock has fallen roughly 70% over five years; Bumble has declined approximately 91% from its 2021 IPO peak. The industry remains revenue-positive — the top three apps generated $4 billion in in-app revenue from 2024 through early 2025 (Appfigures) — but this revenue is driven increasingly by aggressive pricing and subscription monetization rather than user growth, creating an opening for products that align business models with genuine connection outcomes.

Demographic Tailwinds

Gen Z and Millennials are actively seeking alternatives to traditional social media. An Axios/Generation Lab survey found 79% of Gen Z college students opt for in-person interaction over dating apps. A 2025 Hims study of 7,100 respondents found 77% of Gen Z met their partner IRL. The Harris Poll found 78% of Americans prefer in-person social existence to digital-only, with 81% of Gen Z wishing they could disconnect from devices more easily. Eventbrite reported a 400% rise in game-based singles events from 2022 to 2023 and athletic singles events grew 136% in the same period. Only 26% of dating app users are 18–29 (Statista 2023) — the demographic most actively seeking alternatives.

7. Competitive Landscape

Enso's competitive position is defined not by direct competitors — there are none that combine all of our core properties — but by adjacent categories that address portions of the same user need.

8. Business Model & Revenue

Enso generates revenue through four complementary streams, each targeting a different side of the platform:

Stream 1: User Premium Subscriptions

The primary revenue driver at scale. Pricing at $9.99/month or $89.99/year (2 months free), Premium unlocks unlimited collision extensions, advanced discovery filters, full profile analytics, priority visibility, and unrestricted Cue AI access. Based on comparable social platforms, we project 5–10% paid conversion at maturity.

Stream 2: Creator Tools

Creator mode access, available as a subscription tier, provides broadcast tools, engagement analytics, audience insights, and the ability to create and promote events. Revenue scales with creator count and engagement.

Stream 3: Venue Partnerships

Venue mode subscriptions provide dashboards with real-time collision density, popular intent data, event management with QR check-in, moderation tools, and attendee analytics. Enterprise tiers offer promoted placement and integration APIs.

Stream 4: Data Products

Anonymized, aggregated foot traffic insights and event performance benchmarks sold to venue partners. This becomes a significant revenue contributor at scale as the data set grows.

9. Go-To-Market Strategy

Enso's GTM follows a density-first, city-by-city expansion model. Proximity-based networks require local critical mass to deliver value, so we concentrate resources on building density in one market before expanding.

Phase 1: Seed City (Las Vegas, Q2–Q3 2026)

Las Vegas offers an ideal launch market: high tourist density, vibrant nightlife/event ecosystem, concentrated venue districts, and a young/social demographic. Launch strategy includes partnerships with 20+ venues on Fremont Street and the Strip, activation through local creators and event hosts, and campus outreach at UNLV. Target: 5,000 active users, 25 venue partners, 100 active creators within 90 days.

Phase 2: Multi-City Expansion (Q4 2026–Q2 2027)

Expand to 3–5 cities selected for venue density, demographic fit, and event culture. Candidates include Austin, Miami, Nashville, and San Diego. Each city launch follows the same playbook refined in Vegas. Target: 50,000 total users, 200 venues, 2,000 creators.

Phase 3: National Scale (2027–2028)

With proven playbook and product-market fit data, scale to 20+ cities. Launch enterprise venue deals with national chains and event companies. Open creator marketplace for promoted content and events. Target: 250K+ users, 1,000+ venues.

10. Financial Projections

Key assumptions: 30% MAU/total user ratio (consistent with social apps), conservative paid conversion starting at 5% (Bumble achieves 15%+), ARPU growth driven by upsell from monthly to annual plans and expansion into creator/venue tiers.

Assumption Benchmarks

All financial projections are internal estimates. The following industry benchmarks provide context for the key assumptions:

11. Risk Factors & Mitigations

12. The Ask & Use of Funds

Enso is raising $1.5 million in pre-seed funding to complete product development, launch in our seed city, and prove density-driven growth metrics that will unlock a subsequent seed round.

Key Milestones This Funding Unlocks

Within 12–18 months of funding, we target: App Store launch on iOS and Android, 5,000+ active users in Las Vegas, 25+ venue partnerships, 100+ active creators, $500K ARR run rate, and validated playbook for multi-city expansion — the proof points needed for a $5–8M seed round.