Rent a Cyber Friend will pay you to talk to strangers online and will show off its platform at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025

Francesco Vitali will be the first to admit that his co-founder Chris Siamettis first pitched him Hire a cyber friendHe didn’t quite get the idea.

“Who would pay someone to talk to someone?” Vitaly told TechCrunch. “But Chris insisted. Chris is a millennial, and I’m Gen X, so it wasn’t easy for me to understand his perspective.”

Vitali has worked with Siamettis for nearly two decades; they ran 48 moviesa International Short Film Festival (Vitalio is a film producer). So he took a leap of faith to convince his associate of an idea he couldn’t shake: a video chat platform where people could pay by the minute to have casual conversations with “cyber friends.”

Hire CyberFriends to 3 million registered users without raising venture capital or spending any money on marketing. The company also doesn’t have social media because it’s too understaffed to devote resources to it. Part of the startup Startup battlefield and will be presented TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 In San Francisco later this month.

The company’s rapid growth proved Vitali’s first reactions wrong, but as he used the product himself, he began to realize that there was a big market for human connections — especially at a time when people were paying to talk to AI bots.

“Loneliness is the biggest disease in the world right now,” Vitali said. “Millions are lonely, and they’re unemployed or looking for purpose. So, we’ve created a platform where people’s time is valued again and a place where being human matters.”

Cyber ​​friends are first verified to verify their identity, and then they can set a per-minute rate to charge for their conversations; The platform keeps 20% of that fee. People aren’t just paying for companionship. Some cyber friends charge higher rates if they are an academic or proven expert in a particular subject, or if they speak a particular language that a user wants to practice.

For any social media platform — especially one that connects people in real-time video chats — security and content moderation is a challenge. Vitali notes that the platform has a block feature, but as the company continues to grow, it needs to invest more to maintain a healthy environment. He said that next on the product road map is a more robust and efficient system to vet potential cyber friends more quickly and thoroughly.

Vitali’s turning point came not long after launching the company when he connected with a 19-year-old from China. He notices that this person is one of the most active users on the site, and spends $200 a day talking to people. Vitali rigged the site so that he could be the only cyber friend available and used the opportunity to ask the user about his experience without revealing that he had founded the company.

“He said, ‘I don’t feel safe going out to the mall and meeting strangers, but this site gives me the opportunity to exchange cultures and meet people from all over the world,’ and that was the first moment I realized we had something here,” Vitali recalled.

He still thinks the connections people make in person are irreplaceable. But in an internet where people suck addict or dangerous Connections with AI chatbots that are designed to maximize engagement, this move towards humanity means something to him.

If you want to learn more about hiring a cyber friend from the company — as well as check out dozens of others, listen to their pitches and listen to guest speakers on four different stages — join us at Disrupt October 27 to 29 in San Francisco. Learn more here.