New Startup Realtime Closes $4M Funding

Kevin Robertson, Vernon Coleman

We first met Vernon Coleman at CruzHacks 2017. He was a UCSC freshman working on social networking ideas for students. When COVID struck in March 2020, Vernon and his partner Kevin Robertson decided to do a walkabout in the South Carolina hills to refine their startup ideas for a social networking app. On December 18, 2020, Vernon and Kevin announced $4M seed funding for Realtime: a new social networking app built around pop-up video chats. The funding round was led by Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian, via his new venture fund: Seven Seven Six.

Realtime invites users to create video chat rooms where they can meet new people, connect with old friends, and host bite-sized convos about whatever interests them in a way that’s simple, serendipitous, and fun. Groups can hang out and talk, or jump from room to room to explore what’s happening across Realtime at any moment, creating a sense of real-life serendipity that’s often missing from other social networks.

The world of Realtime is all about finding experiences that resonate with you in the moment. Discovery doesn’t have to be an aimless scroll or driven by an algorithm based on the people you follow. Realtime helps you discover topics and people to connect with based on your current vibe! 

“Realtime is a fresh new place where you can just be yourself, speak your mind, and make new friends,” said Realtime’s co-founder and CEO, Vernon Coleman. “Most social networks were built to hit you with a trillion shots of dopamine by coercing you to increase whatever engagement metrics map to their business goals. We just want a space that encourages people to be fully present with one another and focused on the moment.”

“Previous generations of social media leave me with the feeling of lost time, emotionally drained, and questioning my value if I don’t get a lot of likes, follows, or retweets,” said Realtime’s co-founder and CTO, Kevin Robertson. “We’re creating something that gives people a place to express their thoughts and feelings and truly socialize.” 

Currently built on iOS, Realtime recently finished its alpha testing while raising a seed round and is now releasing new invitations to those on the waitlist for its beta as it prepares for its public launch early next year. The initial seed investment will be used to build upon the existing team, scale operations, and develop an Android product.

“People are craving human connection now more than ever and Vernon has identified a unique way to expedite today’s evolving need for interaction. His innovative approach to building hyper-personal online communities through instant, real-time video chatting made Realtime a compelling company to invest in,” said Alexis Ohanian, Founder of Seven Seven Six. “As someone who loves connecting on social media and discussing topics I’m passionate about, I’m excited Realtime makes online interactions more seamless and even more authentic.”

Additional investors in Realtime include Chad DePue, Director of Engineering of Snap; Chazz Lovelace, real estate investor; Daniel Pomp, founder of GeneSeek; Ian Hogarth, co-founder of Songkick; Kevin Lin, co-founder of Twitch; Kun Gao, co-founder of Crunchyroll; Nick Caldwell, VP of Engineering of Twitter; Nick Talarico, CEO of SuperLucky; Ravi Metha, formerly CPO of Tinder; Rohini Pandhi Product at Square and Founder of Transparent Collective; Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI; Scott Heiferman, co-founder of Meetup; Scott Belsky, founder of Behance; Sebastian Gil, Engineering Manager at Snap; Shripriya Mahesh, Founding Partner of Spero Ventures; Shruti Gandhi, founder of Array Ventures; Stephen Wemple of Spero Ventures; Sunita Mohanty, Product Lead at Facebook; Yancey Strickler, co-founder of Kickstarter; Willie Coleman, real estate investor, Capital T, Polymath Capital, and January Ventures.