*By Madison Alworth*
Dolo could be your new favorite social platform. The location-based app encourages people to meet in real life ー and do something.
"We wanted to go back a little bit to the basics of what it means to actually connect with people we don't know," said Raja Haddad, the CEO and co-founder of Dolo.
Those basics, according to Haddad, begin wherever the user is.
"We picked location as that context of relevance, because we all share a sense of experience in location," Haddad said in an interview Thursday with Cheddar. "And we figured that technology hasn't figured out a good way yet to connect us and give us a platform to chat with people around us."
On Dolo, users can find someone to play pick-up basketball or ask where to find the best nearby happy hour deals. Users can go by their real name or a pseudonym, and they can mask their picture with a cartoon that is removed for someone who is designated as a friend. Users' accounts are verified by a phone number.
Unlike other social platforms like Facebook, Snapchat, or Instagram that connect users with real-life friends, Dolo wants to connect users with other people online they may not already know, but who are nearby and willing to meet in real life.
Haddad and Ben Vigier, Co-founder and CPO of Dolo, started the business after initially meeting at Apple in 2010. The pair first collaborated on the Apple Store App before Haddad moved onto Apple Watch and Vigier to Apple Pay. Now, their project is Dolo.
Haddad and co-founder Ben Vigier, first met in 2010 when they worked at Apple. With Dolo, they aim to build real-life connections ー a goal shared by a number of social platforms, like Facebook. But the Dolo co-founders said they are trying to learn from Facebook's mistakes.
"Research has shown that in a very connected world, we are feeling very lonely and isolation these days," said Haddad. "It's an opportunity right now, and especially at this time, to sort of build something from scratch, build it with the users in mind, with the respect of what they want and what they don't want, build it with the idea of positive connections, and sort of see where that goes."
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/new-social-platform-wants-you-to-connect-with-strangers).
The Trump administration has issued its first warnings to online services that offer unofficial versions of popular drugs like the blockbuster obesity treatment Wegovy.
Parents of teenagers who died by suicide after interacting with AI chatbots are set to testify before Congress.
Albania's Prime Minister Edi Rama says his new Cabinet will include an artificial intelligence “minister” in charge of fighting corruption. The AI, named Diella, will oversee public funding projects and combat corruption in public tenders. Diella was launched earlier this year as a virtual assistant on the government's public service platform. Corruption has been a persistent issue in Albania since 1990. Rama's Socialist Party won a fourth consecutive term in May. It aims to deliver EU membership for Albania in five years, but the opposition Democratic Party remains skeptical.
The Federal Trade Commission has launched an inquiry into several social media and artificial intelligence companies about the potential harms to children and teenagers who use their AI chatbots as companions.
Swedish buy now, pay later company Klarna is making its highly anticipated public debut on the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday, the latest in a run of high-profile initial public offerings this year. The offering priced at $40 Tuesday, above the forecasted range of $35 to $37 a share, valuing the company at more than $15 billion. The valuation easily makes Klarna one of the biggest IPOs so far in 2025, which has been one of the busier years for companies going public. Other popular IPOs so far this year include the design software company Figma and Circle Internet Group, which issues the USDC stablecoin..
Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison wrested the title of the world’s richest man from longtime holder Elon Musk early Wednesday as stock in his software giant rocketed more than a third in a stunning few minutes of trading. That is according to wealth tracker Bloomberg. A college dropout, the 81-year-old Ellison is now worth $393 billion, Bloomberg says, several billion more than Musk, who had been the world’s richest for four years. The switch in the ranking came after a blockbuster earnings report from Oracle. Forbes still has Musk as the richest, however, valuing his private businesses much higher.
