Sobrr

Meet new people, make friends, and share your life in the moment. Not everything needs to last. www.sobrr.life

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Tired of just "following" Katy Perry? Check out a more social Instagram

Sobrr is a new 24-hour photo-sharing app that has become very popular among the younger generation recently, rapidly rising up in ranking the past two months among the top 80 apps in the US Apple App Store.

Sobrr, like Instagram, is a photo-sharing app, but it has a catch that makes it more social and allows each person to stand out. On Instagram, there is a clear trend of who the popular peeps are, as shown by the followers count on each account’s profile and the like count on each shared photo.

While these numbers seem small on the page, it creates an unspoken, subtle-but-not-so-subtle competition among the hipster coffee drinkers, fashionistas, and hot girls, all showing off their styles to some number of strangers who follow and like their content.

But after you add all your friends from Facebook and Twitter, all your contacts from high school, middle school, and college, it’s hard to get followers, let alone get more likes. Too many people are posting pics and your pretty photo just gets buried among other even prettier pics. After all that time you put into finding that perfect angle. Sigh.

Guess what. You, too, can be a hipster coffee drinker, a fashionista, a hot girl, or all of these combined.

Sobrr wipes out its contents in 24 hours, which means that every day is a fresh new start for everyone. Your photo will show up first among people around you, and they will leave comments and maybe send you a friend request for a chat!

Even if you did have a couple thousand followers and achieved the “celebrity status” on Instagram, what’s the point of being an Instagram celebrity anyway if all your followers are strangers you don’t even know and will probably never meet?

(If you look closely you will see that the left image looks like the Instagram icon.)

Look at Katy Perry, for instance, who has over 100 million followers on Instagram. Her followers probably just follow her for her crazy costume, her reputation in the music industry, and dedicated fandom — which is totally cool too. But wouldn’t it be even cooler if you could send her a chat and tell her how awesome her Dark Horse outfit is?

Sobrr is the place you should post your pics if you want real social interaction — or if you want to get popular for reals. Download the Sobrr app here.

_The Sobrr Team

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With Sobrr you can share photos freely & meet new people. Check out our new promo video! Download for iPhone

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Today we are thankful for everything that we have, especially our amazingly entertaining and engaging Sobrr community. From everyone on the Sobrr team to all of our vibing friends in the United States and across the world, we want to wish you all a happy and safe Thanksgiving.

Happy vibing, The Sobrr team

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Get your Sobrr app at: iPhone!

_The Sobrr Team

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1) “That’s a cool outfit! What was the occasion?”

That’s a good conversation starter, especially if you just sent her a friend request on a whim after seeing her vibing. Comment, or better, compliment her on anything you see in her vibing or avatar, and ask what the occasion was. It shows that you are interested in what she likes and that you notice these things.

2) “Hey! I’m a dog person too ;)”

Did a girl just post a vibing of her puppy? Great chance to start the conversation! You don’t necessarily have to be a dog person. You just have to say you are as a placeholder to start the conversation so you two have something to relate to. (But if you actually hate dogs, you might want to reconsider talking with her. Maybe you guys aren’t a great match after all.)

3) “I must say, you are absolutely beautiful! I’m sure many people have told you that already, but I thought you might want to hear it again!”

Long messages like this can be a hit or miss, but some girls may really appreciate compliments! Who doesn’t being told that they’re beautiful after all? Just be sure to come off as genuine and not just some old creep trying to get something out of her.

4) “Omg I was there last night too!”

If it just so happens that you and the girl were at the exact same place last night, you already have so many things to talk about. Continue the conversation with whether she had a good time, who she was with, or your favorite moment of the night. Then, be sure to invite her for the next time you’re going out, and you just might get lucky.

5) “Hey, I kinda like you. Will you keep me after 24 hours? :)”

If you get a cold response, ask what would make her smile. She may be skeptical at first but might find you too cute to let go.

  Here is how not to pick up a girl on Sobrr:

1) “Hi.”

Surprisingly, there are quite a number of guys out there who send out one-word messages like this. How are girls supposed to respond to this? Messages like this are only asking for one response: “Bye.”

2) “I love you. Do you love me?”

Whoa, that escalated really fast. Not everyone in the world knows exactly what love is, but this guy surely does not.

3) "Thanks for accepting my friend request. Any idea on what to talk about?"

Boring. Go away.

4) “Do you want to sext?”

Some girls are attracted to direct guys, but not like this. Sobrr is not just a hookup app for you to send inappropriate photos to the girls.

5) “Send me a picture of you and where you are”

Creepy much? I would really hope that I am one billion miles away from you all the way in Antarctica.

If you haven't already downloaded Sobrr, today is the day!

iPhone: bit.ly/SobrriPhone

See you on Sobrr! ;)

_The Sobrr Team

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Sobrr wins Most Innovative Award at SVIEF 2014

We attended the Silicon Valley Technology Innovation & Entrepreneurs Forum 2014 over the weekend in Santa Clara, CA. There were a great number of attendees, including speakers, investors, management directors, and fellow startup entrepreneurs from all around Silicon Valley and the nation: Co-founder of Apple Computer, Inc. Steve Wozniak, U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke, President of Baidu Inc. Yaqin Zhang, and more.

We were invited to present among 13 startups that were selected from the preliminary round at the startup contest, where we had 3 minutes to pitch to five investors in front of an audience, followed by another 3 minutes of Q&A. Investors who are interested in being a mentor for Sobrr would then raise their hands (we had three investors raise their hand!) after which we were able to ask one question to each of the investors before we could decide who would be the best mentor for us. It was indeed a nerve-wracking experience but also fun and worthwhile.

We are honored to have won the Most Innovative Award of the startup contest are excited to return with plaques in our hands. But most importantly, we are thrilled to see the amazing responses to our Sobrr app and look forward to bringing more new features that would continue to encourage our fans to cherish their lives and live boldly, post freely.

- The Sobrr Team

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Sobrr Inc. Closes $1.1 Million Funding From IDG Ventures

Ever since our launch on July 10, we have been growing rapidly both nationally and globally, being covered by famous media such as CNN, VentureBeat, Re/code, Independent, and Daily Mail.

We are very pleased to announce that we have secured a seed funding round of $1.1M from IDG Ventures!

Now that we have locked our seed round funding, we are going to work towards bringing Sobrr to more users through our new upcoming features. While currently only available on iOS, Sobrr will first be released in beta mid-September. Users interested in being beta users may sign up here: http://bit.ly/1wpdbNA. Sobrr will also be available in multiple languages very soon!

Sobrr’s Campus Race Program (www.sobrr.me/campus2014), where college students are encouraged to spread Sobrr app to the rest of campus, is expected to launch mid-September. Monthly winners of the campus race will win a campus-wide party and the representing student ambassador will an iPad.

We want to continue promoting the culture of freedom in the industry of social networking through our 24-hour photos and chats. With Sobrr, people now have a more vibrant sharing platform where they can share freely so that our online interactions can be more like our in-person social interactions.

Our 24-hour friendship feature encourages users to think about intentionality in people’s relationships, making a distinction between regular “friends” that come and go and true crews that stick with you to the end.

But most importantly, have fun and enjoy life in the moment. Because that’s what we’re all about.

_The Sobrr Team

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UC Berkeley Edition: 10 Things you need to do Before School Starts

10.   Clear Your Netflix Queue – Summer is the season of binge-watching and if spent correctly, can get you caught up on all of your favorite shows, and even a few of your guilty pleasures (looking at you “Sister Wives”). Before classes officially begin it’s important to make it through that last sprint of your “House of Cards” marathon. But be sure to save a few choice seasons for when you need to procrastinate during mid-terms and dead week.

9.   Party Hop through the Frats During Welcome Week – Ah welcome week. The mailer your parents got advertises the club fairs and campus festivities, but the socially-educated Berkeley student knows better; it’s a period where all fraternity houses open their doors for a week of nonstop dancing and drinking games.  Make sure you stop by and welcome Berkeley back the proper way.

8.   Hike the Big C at Sunrise – No Berkeley list is incomplete without an obligatory Big C reference. If you can get up in time, nothing brings in the new school year like a sentimental gaze down onto the campus and SF skyline as the world wakes up. Also, sunrise equals easy life symbolism and Instagram photos.

7.   Get Free Things at Caltopia – Fact: Everything is better when it’s free. That’s why Caltopia is not only the quintessential Cal tradition but is also essential shopping for last-minute school items. Need a new coffee mug, writing pens, and Cal keychain? Bingo. Also, it’s a rare time when you can trick yourself into thinking you’ll actually use that membership to the RSF you just signed up for.

6.   Visit San Francisco – San Francisco is one of the coolest, most beautiful and culturally-diverse cities on the planet. But let’s face it, once the semester starts we forget it exists. That’s why the weekend before your first class is the perfect time to BART over and spend the day shopping at the Westfield, eating clam chowder, and visiting Alcatraz.

5.   Reconnect with Friends – There is nothing better about college than the friends you make. And chances are, you’ve spent a good part of your summer missing most of them. The good news is that the week before school starts is basically one giant reunion party that includes everything from late night karaoke to early morning brunch. The hardest part is scheduling in everyone.

4.   Eat at the Asian Ghetto – Berkeley is known to be a particularly health-conscious community, but luckily the Asian Ghetto is here to balance the scales. Whether you prefer the Garlic Beef at Thai Basil or the infant-sized Calzones at Gypsy’s, the Asian Ghetto has something for every taste bud. If you plan well enough, the last days of summer can include the “AG Buffet,” which reacquaints us with all of our favorite Berkeley cuisine.

3.   Get Boba – Boba is a Berkeley treat so big it deserves its own category. With a plethora of milk tea places around campus, we might not know who originated the boba craze at Berkeley, but we certainly know who enjoys it: everyone. Getting Boba is the perfect reason to hang out and do absolutely nothing with those friends that know you best. Nutritional Warning: Ingesting large quantities of boba may induce 100% contentment and the strong desire that summer break could last forever.

2.   Spend an Afternoon on Memorial Glade – Sunshine in Berkeley is as consistent as the grade curve in your poly-sci class. It’s most likely to appear in August and September, and memorial glade is the best place to experience it. Sunbathe and chill while you can. Once the semester gets rolling memorial glade inevitably just becomes the giant obstacle between you getting to your class in Evans on time.

1.  Download Sobrr – Nothing announces your return to Berkeley like social media, and there’s a brand new app to help you do it. Sobrr is a temporary social network that allows you to live your life in the moment. It’s the perfect way to see what friends are back living it up in the Berk before you have to text and ask. Sobrr also introduces you to brand new friends so you can unite in in your fight against the end of summer. So whether you’re posting that Big C sunrise pic, looking for someone to grab boba with, or are documenting your welcome week parties, Sobrr is the perfect back to school companion. Sobrr: Your life, and summer, in the moment.

_The Sobrr Team

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Have you ever wondered what happens to the stuff you post on social media? Check out Sobrr's "The Ghost of Social Media." Who knows? Maybe the ghost of social media is keeping all your records in his phone.

Download Sobrr from the App Store: http://bit.ly/1kXlqJJ

_The Sobrr Team

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5 Ways to Protect your Career from Your Current & Future Boss

1. Make use of the privacy settings

On Facebook, there are privacy settings that allows you to manage which content to disclose to whom. Don’t let your tagged photos show up on your friends’ feed, or you can make sure you don’t get tagged in a photo unless you have approved it. If your Instagram is a bunch of photos of you and the drinks at a club, you’d probably want to make your posts private.

2. Don’t be friends with people who will make you look bad

If you have a friend with a half-naked photo of himself as a profile picture, go unfriend him right now. You don’t want that guy accidentally posting another inappropriate photo on your wall.

3. Think before you post anything

You’re a little buzzed and feel like making a confession that you’ve been crushing on your colleague since day one at work? Twitter is certainly not the place you want to do it. And if you already have stuff on there that you know you wouldn’t want your employers to see from the younger days (oh, the ansty middle school days), trace them back and delete them as much as possible. Did you know employers search you up before they decide to hire you?

4. Play dual identity

It doesn’t hurt to go ahead and create a new profile for yourself and keep two separate accounts for personal and professional use. Initially, it could be a bit of a trouble to go through your friends list to place them by category. Just make sure you don’t accidentally add follow your boss with the wrong account.

5. Delete them all together

Who needs social media when you can just go back to the old days of calling and meeting up with people in person? Social media platforms like LinkedIn is specifically for professional network, so if you do not intend to have

Or, you can always—

Bonus: Keep all your posts and friends on Sobrr!

It’s sometimes annoying to play around with the privacy settings or manage two profiles for each of the platforms. Imagine having two Facebook profiles, two Twitter handles, two Instagram accounts, and so on. And if you’re not the most techy person in the world, privacy settings can get confusing.

You really don’t need to worry about getting caught by your boss or the HR on Sobrr, since everything gets wiped out in 24 hours anyway. Yup, even that crazy photo of you and your newly found “best buds” from Vegas. In fact, those friendships are probably best they stay in Vegas after all. Sobrr’s temporary 24-hour features will do the job for you.

_The Sobrr Team

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Founders Space Accelerator Opening Party in SF

We joined many startup founders and investors to celebrate the opening of Founders Space Accelerator last night in San Francisco, CA. Some delicious food and drinks were served, as well as a delightful selection of pastry desserts!

It was exciting to hear about all the cool startups that are happening in the Bay Area, and we'd love to meet you guys again soon!

_The Sobrr Team

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Did you know the idea for Sobrr came after a crazy night at Las Vegas? Co-founder Bruce Yang shares his vision for Sobrr and talks about the problems with today's social networking industry and how Sobrr addresses them.

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Sobrr Thoughts — On Friendship

Friendship is not an easy word to define. And a harder word to explain. What is it that makes us biologically driven to pick out others from a planet of 7 billion and decide they are just kind, smart or interesting enough to be our “friends”? Yet friendships are the center of the favorite parts of our lives, and in many cases, make our least favorite parts bearable.

In today’s modern world of social media friendship gets digitized, downloaded and updated into a variety of brightly colored icons on your smartphone. We all know that friendship is a unique experience for those involved. Regardless, some apps try and tell you just what friendship looks like.

On Twitter, it looks like following. This is a purely one-way street, and is the friendship equivalent of having someone you really like, stalk, and hang on their every word, without them necessarily knowing you exist. On Facebook, friendship is reciprocated which at first seems closer to the real world. But often times the standard for this connection is lowered and that “friendship” overstays its welcome. By a long shot. If this were the real world, it would be akin to having nearly everyone you’ve ever spoken to constantly bombarding you with their struggle at the DMV, new job offer and cats all day long. Google+ likes to give us options, and tells us we can choose to have family, friends and the ever-so-distant acquaintances (really, what is this category for? Your dentist?) But this still doesn’t come close to reflecting how we really feel about these special people in your lives.

We know that friendship can’t be easily defined, and the best ones defy all definitions. Friendship is a fluid, living thing that inspires us and gives us the support we need to stay sane. At their best, these friendships can motivate us to become the people we want to, and keep us aware of the lives we’re living. That is why Sobrr offers a unique way to make friends that has never existed before on social media – the 24 hour friend. If you meet someone, and aren’t sure what category they are, (even if they are your dentist) that’s okay. You have time to decide, based on what they do in the present. If it’s a good fit, you can both become a permanent part of the other’s crew. If not, that’s okay. You can both go your separate ways, just like the real world. The power is all yours. We at Sobrr might not be able to help you define why that one special person gets you like no one else in 7 billion. But we can at least help you express it.

Sobrr – your life, and friendships, in the moment.

_The Sobrr Team

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PR Hacker Event at San Francisco

Last night a couple people from Sobrr checked out PR Hacker's workshop event about finding our ways into tech reporters' inboxes through effective PR.

We had the joy hearing Benjamin Kaplan's lively and informative, tried and tested tips on how to gain media attention, and Sam O'Keefe from TechCrunch and Melissa Joy Kong from Eventbrite also shared the types of headlines that catches their eyes and pet peeves that everyone should avoid.

We were even lucky to be selected among many startup founders to pitch Sobrr to all the attendees!

It was a great event, and we are excited to hear more from the PR Hacker team!

_The Sobrr Team

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6/29: SF Pride Parade

When we're not busy hacking away for the next version of Sobrr, we're out on the streets showing off at SF Pride.

_The Sobrr Team

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6/24: Pre-Launch Party

Thank you all for coming to our official launch party! We had too much fun and lots of beer.

_The Sobrr Team

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V1.2: Oh, friends

They are truly important. When you meet someone for the first time, you exchange names, chat a little, and get to know each other a bit before you decide whether he’s a chill dude or a cool gal. You can do the same on Sobrr. The 24-hour friendship creates space for you to meet someone new and start a conversation without the pressure of continuing forever (until that #awkwardmoment where you have to unfriend that person).

We are excited to announce that version 1.2 is available for download today! A number of features have been added to make it even easier to meet new people.

People Nearby: Self-explanatory. At a rave? Check out who else is there! Did you meet someone you want to friend request? You don’t have to know his or her username to search.

Temporary friend requests: Now, the friend requests will also only last for 24 hours. *gasp!* Go ahead and accept (or reject, lol) dat friend request yo.

Delete Crew: You may now delete people on your Crew list. So if you made a good impression the first 24 hours, be sure to keep it up. Don’t worry, your Crews will never be notified when you take them off your list.

Simplified sign-up process: When you download the app, you don’t have to go through the tutorial tiles to sign up for an account. We originally thought five tiles wouldn’t be too bad, but we figured it was still a test of your patience.

Oh yeah. Did you see us at the SF Pride parade on Sunday, June 29? We had lots of fun.

_The Sobrr Team