In this episode, we interview Irad Eichler, CEO of Circles, a technology company that enables people to find and join support groups for $15/month.

We discuss how to design meaningful ways for people to connect at scale, the role of hope, empathy, and belonging in communities, how AI functions into loneliness, and how to develop meaningful metrics to evaluate impact.

Circles: https://circlesup.com/

Connecting Beyond: https://www.connectingbeyondpodcast.com/

00:00 Intro & About Circles

03:28 Designing the journey for comfort

05:10 The 167 Hour Problem

09:41 Articulating the value of groups

13:53 Introducing the concept of groups

21:30 The value of narrowly scoped groups

23:50 Advice to other founders

25:23 The risk of convenience

29:19 Using tech to scale vs. communicate

34:56 Irad's message for listeners