[EO San Francisco] Creating Real-World Connections in a Digital Age With Shalini Lunia

John Corcoran: 19:19

Wow. And with. With that, the family was okay with you kind of running with that initiative.

Shalini Lunia: 19:30

I think when you’re growing, you don’t realize it. I think it’s only when I think certain things happen that you realize. Because I still had a father in law in picture.

John Corcoran: 19:42

So was he running the business? The father in law was running the business.

Shalini Lunia: 19:47

My father in law still runs the business. Yes.

John Corcoran: 19:49

Okay. Okay.

Shalini Lunia: 19:50

So. I think it’s only when.

Shalini Lunia: 19:55

I think. I was also maturing and I wanted a say in certain things because I think probably. That became difficult. Yeah.

John Corcoran: 20:07

So this business is growing. You eventually have a life change. You end up getting divorced, and you come to the United States. Kind of. Shalini 2.0, if you will.

And you start this company which is called Cielo. What motivated that? What came out? How’d you come up with that idea?

Shalini Lunia: 20:27

So I have moved so many times. And every time I moved, like by the time I stopped making friends, I moved. And in the younger years, you still find people. But it was so hard, right? Because, like, when I got married, I came into Pune.

I didn’t know anyone. And especially want to go for a play or something. And you just could not go because either your husband’s not interested and you have no friends to go with. And then I moved to Bombay as a single woman. And that was hard.

And then through Covid, we went through these where it was so hard to make friends and I was actually traveling. During Covid, I would move from city to city. Whenever city was started closing down, I would. I was living between Goa, New York, Jaipur and that’s how the idea came about. What if there was an app just to find people and smaller groups not like meta, which are larger group, just smaller groups, just to go out for dinner, just to go out, maybe for a concert, if I could just find those 1 or 2 people that I could just hang out with.

Shalini Lunia: 21:34

Yeah. And it was San Francisco. It’s it’s a tech city. I mean, yeah, if you don’t do it here.

John Corcoran: 21:40

Right.

Shalini Lunia: 21:41

So that’s how Cielo started.

John Corcoran: 21:43

Wow. And how did you find a co-founder? How did you get it off the ground initially after you had the vision for it, the idea for it.

Shalini Lunia: 21:52

So my co-founder also went for something similar because he was studying at Santa Clara and Covid hit. And he’s also moved a couple of times and he went to the same issue. He’s much younger. He’s only about 2826. So he went through a similar like it’s so hard to find friends if you’re not in college, even if you’re in college.

According to our research. An average American moves three times in his lifetime, and it takes three months to finally make friends. To find a golf buddy or to you want to play tennis. But it takes first three months. It’s so crucial.

And that’s where our app comes in. App comes in for people who are looking for that company. Yeah. To find a buddy.

John Corcoran: 22:40

Yeah. And how has it been building that company compared to other companies that you’ve worked with before? Like kind of a different animal, right. An app. And.

Oh yeah.

Shalini Lunia: 22:49

Because it’s earlier I’ve dealt with from labor to shop owners to wholesalers. I’ve dealt with people selling a product here. I have to invite people to participate. It’s too different. It’s just too different ballgame.

And it’s also tech. I’m not very, very tech savvy. So my co-founder is the CTO, so he takes care of it. It’s a little challenging, but I’m enjoying it. I meet a lot of people.

It’s fun to go out in a city and kind of promote the app. It’s been an interesting journey so far.

John Corcoran: 23:39

Yeah, it’s great when you’re scratching your own itch because you you understand the challenge better than if you’re creating some business in some area where you’re not involved or not. You’re not the own use case.

Shalini Lunia: 23:51

Yeah. No, it’s been a very interesting journey.

Shalini Lunia: 23:54

Yeah. Because now it’s about people. People who want to belong. And we’re giving them a space to belong. But my biggest challenge is that. People still think, oh, it’s an app.

But yeah, it’s been a very interesting journey. Yeah, it’s a very self-learning journey. You understand so much about yourself.

John Corcoran: 24:17

And in this age of, you know, where smartphones, you know, people feel lonelier than ever. I think that there will always be a need for that sort of thing, though. It’ll always be a need for human connection with other people.

Shalini Lunia: 24:29

Yeah, loneliness is one of the biggest issues that I think the next generation is going to face. We are going to face. So we are trying to bring people out. You want to go to a concert, you don’t have company. Get on the app.

So come out of your homes.

John Corcoran: 24:47

So how does one use it? Like you mentioned, you’re going to Outside Lands next weekend, which is a big concert in San Francisco. I was actually just at Golden Gate Park last weekend for this dead end company. So, so I mean, it’s huge. Lots of people there.

So does one go on the app and like just say who else is going to this? I’d love to meet up with.

Shalini Lunia: 25:05

So you so. You can post it on the app outside lands to a particular show if you’re interested in, and maybe other people would show up. And then there’s a chat option and you can chat and meet up. So yeah, you can just post it as an event and people can sign up. It’s only limited to six people. So we’re encouraging smaller group bigger conversations so it’s easier to manage.

It’s not like 50 people going to a concert. It’s only limited to six people. And the other people can request to attend your event and you can accept if you like. You can go through the profiles. Each profile is verified, so your Insta or your LinkedIn or one of the socials is attached. So you can see who the person is and if you’re going to be the person or not. And Yeah.

John Corcoran: 26:00

Yeah, yeah. Well, I know it’s not easy building a new platform like that, but I think that is such an important cause, helping people to feel less lonely. And in today’s world. So I think it’s really cool that you decided to take on that challenge. Shalini, this has been so much fun hearing about your background, your story and all that kind of stuff.

Where can people go to learn more about you or learn more about Cielo or any things that we talked about here?

Shalini Lunia: 26:25

Well, I’m on LinkedIn, Shalini Lunia. I think that’s the best spot to be okay to find me.

John Corcoran: 26:33

And Cielo on the any app store.

Shalini Lunia: 26:36

Cielo Social. It’s on Android and Apple.

John Corcoran: 26:40

Cielo.social. Awesome. Thanks, Shalini.

Shalini Lunia: 26:44

All right. Thank you. Thank you. John.

Outro: 26:46

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