The Covid pandemic created important isolation.
Ifedayo-Emmanuel Adeyefa-Olasupo, founding father of Figbox, mentioned that his concept of utilizing synthetic intelligence as a approach to join folks got here on account of the isolation that was a part of the current Covid pandemic. That isolation precipitated him to create Figbox, which is a portal designed to foster human contact.
“We wish folks to really feel much less alone, extra linked, and have significant conversations and exchanges, as a result of that is what we’re as people, we’re social animals, we want it,” Adeyefa-Olasupo defined, “The pandemic, uncovered that need much more, I used to be longing for human contact.”
However the social media out there throughout the pandemic didn’t present the platform he felt was wanted, so he created Figbox. On the similar time, he fearful that the pattern of customers turning into hooked on social media would solely make the issue worse if his concept took off.
“And I feel habit, or spending extra time on-line is one thing that we’re towards, we do not need you to spend extra time on Figbox,” Adeyefa-Olasupo mentioned. “We wish you to spend extra time making the connection, after which making that connection, bodily sooner or later.”
Distant connections
Teams return from the isolation of the Covid pandemic
The concept was to have customers make their connections remotely after which bodily, in particular person at instances handy to enterprise, corresponding to over lunch. To encourage these mentorship conferences, Figbox expenses small sums, sometimes about the identical as lunch cash. “So now we have this kind of lunch cash mechanism the place you’ll be able to make as much as $500 every week, simply sharing your perception,” he mentioned. Adeyefa-Olasupo mentioned that a lot of their mentors donate their earnings on to charity.
The Figbox mannequin could sound prefer it’s competing with LinkedIn, however Adeyefa-Olasupo mentioned that it’s really not. “You are part of a group the place you are feeling like you might be an necessary asset to the group.” He mentioned that in contrast to LinkedIn, the place somebody can have a whole bunch of connections, that’s not the case with Figbox.
“With Figbox, you solely have 50 connections, so it’s a must to think twice in regards to the folks you are connecting with whether or not or not it is significant,” he mentioned.
Adeyefa-Olasupo mentioned {that a} objective of Figbox is to make extra leaders and extra mentors.
“I see, for instance, associates that I grew up with, who’re working, however they are not fulfilled,” he mentioned. As a substitute, he mentioned that the mentorship they wanted to type was not there.
“So I feel that Figbox is making an attempt to resolve and convey mentorship into relationships, and in addition into the skilled world.”
“I feel that after I have a look at Figbox, we’re on the finish of product improvement and I feel it is now convincing the market that we’re doing one thing significant in an excellent conversational means,” he mentioned.
