When Bryan Kaplan first moved to Charlotte and began working remotely, he noticed the difficulty of connecting with new people. Kaplan’s realization sparked a desire to create a platform facilitating meaningful socail connections, and this in turn led him to found VRV Athletics in 2024.
VRV Athletics is a mobile app that helps people make friends through shared passion for participating in sports. Through the app, users can indicate their favorite sports and their own skill level, and then browse other users by swiping through profiles to find new friends to play sports with.
“What I wanted to build was a tool that [people] could use to help combat that social isolation and help people make new, meaningful connections while living an active lifestyle,” Kaplan said.
Friends first, sports second
VRV Athletics is not the only app seeking to help people find connection through sports but it distinguishes itself from other, similar apps by prioritizing the development of friendships over sports. It’s a subtle but meaningful difference.
“We are helping people make friends through sports, whereas other people are organizing sports and maybe making friends while doing it,” Kaplan said.
Kaplan said he specifically chose sports as a means for building connection on VRV Athletics in order to help users be clearer and more intentional about why they are meeting each other.
People are often hesitant to use popular friendship-building apps that are more generalized due to concerns about others’ intentions in reaching out, as well as a drawn-out introduction stage, Kaplan said. With VRV Athletics, everyone shares a desire to make friends as well as play sports, so it is quick and easy to connect over mutual interests.
The app’s primary feature is the “swiping” element enabling people to sift through other local users to meet friends, showcasing the commitment to helping people find connection. That said, VRV Athletics isn’t just about initial matchmaking; it also helps users schedule games and events once they make friends.
Users can schedule games and then make those games open either to their friends alone or to the broader VRV Athletics community. These options turn both organizing and RSVPing simple in-app processes.
Users can also create clubs for certain sports or groups wherein people with shared sports interests can chat and organize events.
Kaplan said the fact that VRV Athletics is designed to facilitate connection through a variety of sports, rather than specializing in just one, also sets it apart from other sports social apps.
By not specializing in a specific sport, VRV Athletics is able to hone in on the friendship-building aspect of its mission. The broad appeal to sports fanatics also means that the app can offer a variety of sports for people to list as interests, from more traditionally competitive sports like tennis to everyday activities like walking and running.
Prioritizing the mission
VRV Athletics is, as of this writing, not generating revenue—a decision Kaplan said is intentional, as it allows the startup to focus purely on advancing its mission of connection rather than growing preoccupied with revenue sources.
While Kaplan is currently bootstrapping the startup, he said he plans to begin monetizing the app in the next six to nine months.
Monetization will come in the form of a freemium model, with certain features being locked behind a monthly subscription fee. Kaplan said ensuring that the app always has a level of free access is important to the mission of helping people find connection.
QUICK BITS
Startup: VRV Athletics
Founder: Bryan Kaplan
Founded: 2024
Team size: 2
Location: Charlotte, NC
Website: vrvathletics.com
Funding: Bootstrapped
Eventually, VRV Athletics plans to expand to offer paid, specialized access to enterprises with single sign-on. As people return to the office from the remote work era, Kaplan said companies want to make their workplaces feel like home, and they can spend portions of their wellbeing budgets on VRV Athletics.
“What I think is going to take us from a small passion project to something that I think will actually attract investments, or even potential acquisition down the road, is our plans to go enterprise,” Kaplan said. “That’s really the end game.”
After launching VRV Athletics in Charlotte in June and recently opening the app to users nationwide, Kaplan said the startup is focused on listening to feedback from the community and refining the app from there.
VRV Athletics is currently looking to expand its team with part-time roles with equity-based compensation in full stack engineering, marketing and community management
