Sonder, a London connections app, keeps sign-up tedious on purpose and runs events

London app for platonic and romantic connections built on unstructured, mood-board-style profiles, plus hosted in-person events.

A slower sign-up with no AI profile tools, plus recurring in-person events, will draw users who put effort into connections, even if it loses some sign-ups.

Co-founder Mehedi Hassan said the team did not learn that people are frustrated through user calls but through their own experience of dating apps. He and three friends in their mid-twenties, all London-based, set out to build an app that felt more like Pinterest or MySpace than a job application.

Sonder profiles are completely unstructured, so users build mood boards or digital collages. The company hosts events such as a Speed Drawing night, Presentation Night and a Performative Male Contest, and runs recurring events modelled on run clubs so no single meeting has to work. It uses an LLM that analyses profile screenshots to suggest matches but Hassan said it will not offer AI profile-generation tools, accepting friction and the loss of hundreds of users.

As of April 2026 Sonder had about 6,500 users in London, acquired without paid marketing. It had not raised funding, and the founders worked on it part-time alongside day jobs, hoping to secure funding and go full-time while staying in London.

Hassan said the founders found dating apps unsatisfying from their own use, not from user interviews.

Sun argued that apps built to lower barriers had become monotonous, causing burnout and a loss of authenticity.

Mixing platonic and romantic connections makes in-person events feel less intimidating than dating-only meetups.

Hassan reasons that a user who builds a profile by hand shows how much effort they will put into connections, so Sonder skips AI profile generation.

Deliberate friction can work as a filter: when an app asks for real effort at sign-up, the users who stay are the ones willing to give effort back.

As of 1 April 2026, Sonder had about 6,500 London users acquired without paid marketing and had raised no funding. The four founders ran it part-time alongside day jobs and hoped to raise money, go full-time and stay in London. TechCrunch reported no revenue or event-attendance figures.