The Regular - A Movement for a New Kind of Social Platform
This Is a Movement: Why We Built The Regular
What’s rare these days?
A place where someone remembers your name.
A trivia night that becomes your weekly tradition.
A karaoke DJ who already knows your song.
We’re living in the middle of a loneliness epidemic. Third spaces are disappearing. And the people who make cities feel alive — trivia hosts, karaoke DJs, nonprofit organizers, league runners, open mic emcees — are too often underpaid and overlooked in our tech-driven economy.
But while we all talk about AI and the latest social media app, these are the folks actually working day and night keeping real communities alive.
We’re building The Regular for them.
What We Mean by “Community Creator”
You can think of our concept of a Community Creator similarly to a social media influencer. It’s try that they have an audience. Dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of people a week observe their content. Just like any YouTube or TikTok star they work hard to create.
But a Community Creator doesn’t post content for likes.
They don’t chase trends.
They build real-world connection.
They turn strangers into regulars, bars into chosen hangouts, and weeknights into something people actually look forward to as a respite from an increasingly insane feeling world. They’re the ones making the magic happen — DJs, drag hosts, rec league organizers, trivia and karaoke hosts, nonprofit event leads.
But there’s no big VC fund supporting the tools that they use. No technologies being built to empower them and make their jobs and lives easier. They’ve been completely left out of a view of the creator economy that is purely digital. And yet we wonder why we all feel this sense that our communities are drifting apart.
That ends now.
Our Simple Formula: Recurring Events + Engagement = Community
We believe you can’t build community off one event. Community is built when people show up, again and again.
That’s why we’re focusing on helping people create recurring, real-world moments. We’re starting with what’s familiar, in part to generate revenue at this early stage because VC’s and other funders don’t think there’s a “business”. They don’t think it can scale. But all around the country there are tens of thousands of karaoke nights, trivia leagues, bingo games, drag brunches. We’re working to build the tools that make those events sustainable. Those include:
Smart event tech
Better space and event matchmaking
On-site engagement tools to turn attendees into regulars
Business help, from invoicing to help with data analytics and even understanding how AI can be helpful in their operations
And even help thinking about how to bring doing good and supporting charitable causes into events beyond the standard “donate a portion of proceeds” approach
We Don’t Just Build for Creators — We Build With Them
In our view the challenge here doesn’t call for just a software platform. It calls for a movement. And when I started The Regular I looked around at other tech and companies built to “bring” people together. Think of Facebook (now of course “Meta”), Twitter (I personally refuse to call it by its other name), or similar platforms. After almost two decades have they created community? Have they brought us together? The answer is clear to see in the headlines each day. It’s a resounding no. I believe that one principal reason for this is that no one in those companies, for all their VC dollars, ever actually built or operated a real world community where the community was the point, not a data point on the way to unicorn status.
That’s why we’ve committed to a Venture Studio strategy that sees us investing funding or equity in existing community brands to make them part of our company and culture. We then learn from them. Build what they need. Cater to the experiences that they create. And we simultaneously explore getting those tools into the hands of other Community Creators through our memberships and tech. So we scale what works. And eventually, taken together, we build a platform that’s not shaped by Silicon Valley VC’s or tech bros who’ve never stood on a stage to try to make people laugh, or feel comfortable. Never greeted an event attendee at the door as they walk in. A membership and platform that’s instead shaped from its inception and at its core by the very people it’s built for.
So Community Creators don’t just use our tools. They guide our roadmap. We’re even rolling out a program for fellows to work along us to support our venture studio and broader brand. And we are trying to learn from attendees what tech they want to engage with while they’re on site at events. Things that actually make the experience of being around other human beings more fulfilling, rather than more difficult to focus on for all the distractions of the bright lights of our phones.
The Community Creators that are keeping our communities together deserve more than likes. They deserve ownership.
This Is Personal
I’ve known loneliness. When I moved back to Dallas after graduating from undergrad during the recession, it hit me hard. I had a lot of ambition but no money in my pocket — and no clear path. I found myself struggling to find a community. Struggling to find my place. Community and finding my regular spots and my people saved me. But it didn’t happen through an app. It happened because I found a space. I saw a smile. I felt comfortable. I engaged in convesations. I played trivia. I sang karaoke. And I came back again and again.
The Regular is born out of that experience. Out of the belief that none of us should feel like we’re building our lives alone. That we all deserve a third space — and the people who create those spaces deserve support.
A New Creator Economy Starts with Community
In our view the influencer economy has enough platforms. It’s past time to build something different.
We’re here for the karaoke queens. The trivia champs. The people behind your favorite Tuesday night plans.
They’ve been undervalued for too long.
But they’re the new architects of belonging and the preservation of our humanity and connection in an increasingly inhuman feeling and disconnected world.
And if you’ve ever missed that feeling — of being a regular somewhere — we’re building this for you too. Want to help?
👉 Apply to join us as a Community Creator (free with an application)
👉 We’re trying to find supporters and funders. Learn more about us and scroll down to check out our pitch.
👉 Learn more about our views on Community Creators