Francesco Vitali would be the first to confess that when his co-founder Chris Siametis first pitched him on Lease a Cyber Good friend, he didn’t fairly get the concept.
“Who’s going to pay someone to talk with someone?” Vitali advised TechCrunch. “However Chris was insistent. Chris is a millennial, and I’m Gen X, so it wasn’t straightforward for me to know his imaginative and prescient.”
Vitali had labored with Siametis for about 20 years; they ran 48FILM, a global quick movie competition (Vitali can be a movie producer). So he took a leap of religion to belief his collaborator on the concept he couldn’t shake: a video chat platform the place individuals pays per minute for an off-the-cuff dialog with a “cyber good friend.”
Lease a Cyber Good friend ballooned to three million registered customers with out elevating enterprise capital or spending any cash on advertising and marketing. The corporate doesn’t even have social media as a result of it’s too short-staffed to dedicate assets to it. The startup is a part of Startup Battlefield and might be presenting at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 on the finish of this month in San Francisco.
The corporate’s quick development proved Vitali’s first reactions incorrect, however as he used the product himself, he started to understand that there’s an enormous marketplace for human connection — particularly in a time when persons are paying to speak to AI bots.
“Loneliness is the largest illness on this planet proper now,” Vitali stated. “Hundreds of thousands are lonely, and they’re underemployed or in search of function. So, we constructed a platform the place human time has worth once more, and a spot the place being human is vital.”
Cyber mates are first vetted to confirm their identification, after which they will set a per-minute fee to cost for his or her conversations; the platform retains 20% of that payment. Individuals aren’t simply paying for companionship. Some cyber mates cost a better fee in the event that they’re an instructional or vetted skilled in a selected topic space, or in the event that they converse a selected language {that a} person wish to follow.
Techcrunch occasion
San Francisco
|
October 27-29, 2025
For any social media platform — particularly one which connects individuals in real-time video chats — security and content material moderation is a problem. Vitali notes that the platform has a block characteristic, however as the corporate continues to develop, it might want to make investments additional in sustaining a wholesome surroundings. He stated that subsequent on the product highway map is a extra sturdy and environment friendly system for vetting potential cyber mates extra rapidly and totally.
Vitali’s turning level got here not lengthy after the corporate launched when he related with a 19-year-old from China. He observed that this individual was one of many website’s most energetic customers, and he spent $200 per day to speak to individuals. Vitali rigged the location in order that he can be the one cyber good friend out there and used the chance to ask the person about his expertise with out revealing that he based the corporate.
“He stated, ‘I don’t really feel protected to exit on the mall and meet with strangers, however this website offers me the likelihood to alternate tradition and meet individuals from everywhere in the world,’ and that was the primary second that I spotted we’ve got one thing right here,” Vitali recalled.
He nonetheless thinks that the connections that individuals make in individual are irreplaceable. However on an web the place persons are sucked into addictive or harmful connections with AI chatbots which are designed to maximise engagement, this step of turning towards humanity means one thing to him.
If you wish to be taught extra about Lease a Cyber Good friend from the corporate itself — whereas additionally testing dozens of others, listening to their pitches, and listening to visitor audio system on 4 totally different phases — be part of us at Disrupt, October 27 to 29, in San Francisco. Study extra right here.
