So I Built Something...

I didn't set out to build an app.

I just didn't want to feel lonely anymore.

But everything I tried gave me events, not people. A calendar. A map. A list of things happening. Helpful, sometimes — but nothing stuck. No thread. No warmth. No one I saw again.

And a lot of these event apps felt like "bring your own friends" situations. If you didn't show up with a buddy, you were just a wallflower — trying to break into groups that already knew each other.

I wanted to see if it was possible to build something better. Not to start a company. Just to stop that Friday night feeling.

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Building for the Follow-Through

The idea was simple: don't just help people attend. Help them return.

hulofuse started as an experiment.

What if something could gently nudge people to reconnect? What if it noticed when two people clicked? What if it made it easier to say, "Want to hang out again?"

Not in a creepy way. Not in a "gamified" way. Just enough to close the gap between a nice moment and a missed one.

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The Real Work Is Just Starting

Right now, it's still rough. Early. Unfinished.

There's no viral moment. No perfect flow. It's just me (and a few brave testers) trying to figure out what helps.

Some parts work. Some don't.

What I've learned already is that people don't want to be overwhelmed. They want just enough help to get past the awkward bit. To follow up without it feeling weird. To not lose the thread.

So that's what I'm building toward.

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What I'm Really Building

This isn't about competing with social media. I'm not trying to "disrupt" anything.

I built hulofuse to compete with giving up.

With that feeling of: "Maybe this is just how life is now." "Maybe I missed my window." "Maybe I'm just not the kind of person who makes new friends anymore."

I don't believe that has to be true. And this project — however it ends — is my way of proving it.

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Next time: what actually makes a friendship stick — and the surprisingly small moment most of us miss.