Match up with friends using memes. How the Ukrainian startup frnds was created
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In our recurring Who Are These People segment, Vector offers founders the opportunity to discuss their projects, covering aspects such as their products, marketing strategies, monetisation, investments, and business plans. The focus this time is on frnds, a Ukrainian startup. This is a mobile app designed to match people and help them find friends using memes.
Editor-in-chief Yuliia Tkach interviewed Nadiia Dorota, frnds’s CEO and co-founder, about the product’s features, promotion, investments, and plans.
Conception
Nadiia Dorota is the CEO and founder of the startup. She brings six years of recruiting experience, including two years spent forming teams for startups in Ukraine, Western Europe, and the USA. She has demonstrated her ability to build teams from the ground up, having done so twice. In addition to Nadiia, co-founders Yuliia Drobot and Dasha Maliar played a crucial role in the project’s early development. They are not currently involved in the startup.
«frnds was born from the concept of how adults can connect with one another outside of romantic contexts, moving beyond platforms like Tinder. This was literally the narrative of my colleague, who had just left another event filled with familiar faces, so she shared her concerns emotionally. At that time, she sold me on the concept of frnds,” Nadiia reflects.
The inspiration for frnds emerged in September 2023. According to Nadiia, they believed they were creating a product aimed at networkers seeking professional connections. The startup initiated an acceleration programme at Mission Possible towards the end of November. At that moment, the other co-founders chose to leave the startup to pursue careers in recruitment. They had begun their research and development phase by March, and initiated beta testing in April 2024.
As they progressed, the team recognised that they weren’t just developing a networking solution; the problem was, in fact, more global. «The main problem is that our primary friendships are formed in universities and offices, and the remote era has profoundly disrupted our social connections. User interviews revealed that socialisation is an essential need, frequently operating at an unconscious level. Many people conveyed their confusion regarding how to take the initial step.
I encountered a similar problem; as someone who is very extroverted, I prefer to make at least a few new acquaintances each month. There was uncertainty about where to connect with others if not by constantly going to social gatherings».
The founding team experienced a transformation during the year. Maksym Bas became a founding engineer on the team in the summer of 2024; he was one of the app’s earliest users and a back-end developer. In early 2025, Mariia Zhydenko, a close friend of Nadiia, came on board as a co-founder and COO; she brings six years of experience as a product and finance analyst in enterprise projects (EPAM, Sixt) and has also launched her own fashion project.
The product is now in the final phase of beta testing.
Co-founders of the startup — Nadiya (left) and Maria (right)
Product and audience
frnds is a mobile application designed to match people and facilitate friendship through the use of memes.
Users are presented with a set of 20 memes that they need to react to (like, dislike, don’t understand, etc.). After analysing the reactions, the frnds team offers a recommended profile, allowing users to choose if they want to get acquainted. The application presently has up to 100 users.
Certainly, we consider additional information when providing recommendations, but meme reactions are the primary factor. To initiate a chat, both parties must confirm, but other users receive requests and can instantly view who is interested in connecting.
The existing matching algorithms are far from being perfect. The discovery of memes is just the beginning; our mission is to understand how to match users efficiently based on their reactions and to explore what other significant elements, such as hobbies and experience, are vital for a quality match».
Business model and marketing strategy
«We’re a B2C product with a subscription-based model. The current strategy involves monetising according to the number of likes a user accumulates each month, with different subscription packages available. There is a trial period for users, and they can accumulate likes beyond the first match. It’s crucial to note that this product differs from Tinder in its user flow, as users receive a recommendation only after reacting to 20 memes, ensuring that likes won’t run out quickly.
Our strategy is to start in Ukraine to train our matching algorithm. There is a hypothesis suggesting that it will operate similarly in different markets. We have now verified that the problem is relevant to the US market, but this is only preliminary research; customer development research is still on the agenda. We are assessing which countries in Europe are most affected by the issue to develop a roadmap for our next steps.
In terms of our go-to-market strategy, we are placing our biggest bets on content and influencers. We are developing content and plan to engage in active promotion as soon as we have clarity on the launch dates».
Our target audience is roughly categorised as people aged 23 to 30, coming from intellectual and creative industries.
Investments
The startup has not received any external investments so far and is funded entirely by the co-founders’ own money. They did receive a $3,000 scholarship from Mission Possible. «We intend to seek angel investments and are also exploring grant opportunities. At this point, I can’t provide a figure; we are in the process of researching potential markets and estimating marketing costs, which is our primary funding need».
Plans
The team expects to have the app fully up and running by the end of spring. After that, the focus will be on advancing the technology. «We currently have ML consultants on board, but I’m beginning to search for a dedicated team member — by then, we’ll have our first significant batch of real data.
Our fund-raising strategy includes applying for multiple grants and initiating angel investment efforts», —summarises Nadiia.
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