welcome to 222

rebuilding our

social fabric

& maximizing the probability of an IRL future.

engineering chance

mission

we are on a mission to maximize the probability of an in real life (IRL) future. at our core, we are a relationships company. we're building products to help humanity form, deepen, & maintain meaningful relationships with other people & places on a recurring basis.

we have 2 open roles

222 is comprised of engineers, ML researchers, designers, operators, & artists. we work in person every day at our office in the heart of soho in new york city.

role	location
ios design engineer	new york, ny	view role
head of operations	boston, remote	view role

origins

predicting human social behavior

222 started as a backyard research project where we'd host dinners for our friends.

our team includes published ML researchers who are dedicated to the difficult task of training a human prediction model to understand what drives human compatibility between strangers.

222 N. Shaffer St.

history

the social recession...

& how we got there

1900-1949

The early 20th century was highly social, with surging church and labor union membership, record-high marriage and birth rates post WWII,

and thriving associations like book clubs and volunteer groups. The New Deal established third spaces like libraries, theaters, and playgrounds.

1950-1999

"Once Americans got out of the car, they planted themselves in front of the television. From 1965 to 1995, the typical adult gained six hours a week in leisure time."

Derek Thompson, The Anti-Social Century, The Atlantic

The rise of highways, suburbs, automobiles, and television led to a sharp decline in third places; the backbone of social fabric. TV dominated leisure, reducing participation in volunteering, social clubs, dinner parties, PTAs, religious institutions, libraries, and sports leagues.

2000-2019

“By this account, screens occupy more than 30 percent of waking life."

Derek Thompson, The Anti-Social Century, The Atlantic

The internet, smartphones, and social media reshaped leisure, heavily impacting younger generations. Teens now spend 270-380 minutes daily on screens.

2020-2022

The COVID-19 pandemic intensified social isolation and remote work, diminishing time at workplaces & universities (the last of third places).

This shift further eroded opportunities for spontaneous social interaction, deepening feelings of loneliness and disconnection across communities.

2023-2025

“You can set them (AIs) up to never criticize you, never cheat on you, never have a bad day and insult you, and to always be interested in you.”

Derek Thompson, The Anti-Social Century, The Atlantic

AI companions and virtual worlds offer flawless, customizable relationships, potentially replacing human connections with machine-based validation. As time spent with other humans falls even more, we’ve become more politically divided & far less likely for form long lasting romantic relationships. Rising civic divide, political intolerance, & a plummeting birth rate have become the natural conclusions.

present day

We are now at a societal inflection point. As more & more of blue & white collar labor is automated, we will be faced with an abundance of leisure time. Will we spend this time retreating into a fully virtual & solitary existence?

Or on the other side of the spectrum, will we spend this time in real life, exploring our cities, deepening our relationships, and enriching our life experiences with the people we value most.

PROGRESS

523,816

connections

tens of thousands of members use 222 monthly to meet new people. and since launching, we’ve faciliated over a half a million new connections.

TENETS

we operate by

these tenets

craftsmanship

we care deeply about crafting beautiful experiences; for both cinematic digital interactions & unforgettable IRL moments.

first principles

justifying decisions based on what others have done will lead to a reversion to the mean. we avoid competition by thinking from first principles.

delusional optimism

so-called "experts" often become jaded & cynical about the future. to shift the zeitgeist & succeed in our work, we must remain undying optimists at heart.

single mission

we are a single mission company with one core focus. we don’t engage in any unrelated activism & view everything else as a distraction.

hard problems

everyone told us marketplaces are hard, consumer is harder, & IRL is impossible. at every step, we have proved them wrong.

a+ talent only

the team we build is what our company becomes. we do not tolerate mediocrity. to work at 222, you must be exceptional.

thesis.

we are deeply unsatisfied with today’s so-called social products. instead of fostering human connection, they’ve drained meaning from our lives while exploiting our time and attention. vanity metrics and identity-group affiliations have corroded our social fabric and dulled our sense of connection with the nearby stranger. infinite choice and endless information about people and places have left us paralyzed rather than connected.

instead of meeting each other, we stay home, drowning in decision fatigue, distraction, and infinite entertainment. the friction between digital life and meaningful in-person interaction has pushed us into a social recession: the death of third places, fewer close friends than ever before, rising division, and declining birth rates.

we are hell-bent on reversing this. we believe humanity faces a great filter; mass social isolation combined with hyper-realistic simulations that trap us in distraction. if left unchecked, we risk deeper division and disconnection. more information and more choice are not liberating, they are paralyzing.

hick's law tells us that the more choices we face, the harder it is to decide. the same is true for how we meet people and experience places. the more digital preconceptions we accumulate, the less likely we are to commit to showing up in real life.

our product, brand, and marketing reject this premise. we design experiences that strip away digital preconceptions, making space for authentic irl encounters. as artificial intelligence floods the virtual world with synthetic content and chatbot companions, true human connection will only become more scarce and more valuable.

there are already enough people living close by to make meaningful connections at the tap of a button. with the right technology and the right team, we can build a future where we spend the majority of our time with the people and places in our lives.

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