October 22, 2025 • 23 mins
In this heartwarming and thought-provoking episode, Leisa and Tamara sit down with Gabor K. Kadas, founder of Friending.com—a new app designed to help people safely meet real friends offline. Gabor shares his inspiring journey from feeling isolated after moving around the world to developing a tech solution that connects people through shared interests and verified authenticity.
The conversation dives into the modern epidemic of loneliness, the health impacts of isolation, and how Friending is changing the way we think about friendship in the digital age. Plus, hear about a creative twist—Friending Coffee, a unique way to send coffee (and a message!) to someone you care about.
Whether you’ve just moved to a new city, want to expand your circle, or are curious how technology can bring people closer together, this episode will make you rethink what it means to “friend” someone.
Connect with Gabor:
Friending.com (App currently in beta on iOS)
Follow Friending on Instagram and Reddit for updates
Visit our site at howimetmybff.com
Help support our show by getting some of our exclusive swag found here!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Leisa (00:01):
Hey, besties. My name's Leisa.
Tamara (00:03):
And my name's Tamara, and we're BFFs.
Leisa (00:06):
Tamara and I met when we were about 12 years old growing
up in good old Fairbanks,Alaska.
Tamara (00:11):
And we've been best friends forever since.
Leisa (00:13):
That's right. And that's why we've decided to have some
fun, friendly conversations withthe bestest of best friends.
Tamara (00:18):
We'll talk about how we became best friends, our
experiences together, and haveother best friends on the show
to share how they met. Whoknows?
Leisa (00:27):
You never know when you'll meet your next BFF.
Tamara (00:30):
Now let's get into it, how I met my BFF.
Leisa (00:34):
Welcome to another episode of how I met my BFF. Hi,
Tamara.
Tamara (00:39):
Hello, Lisa. How are you?
Leisa (00:41):
I'm good. I'm good. We have so many exciting things
happening today in terms of techchallenges, but we're gonna make
it through. I am very confident.And I'm really excited because
we of our guests today, this issomething that I think should
have been invented a long timeago.
And so if you are one of thesepeople who is wishing you could
(01:04):
find a friend, but you don'thave one, you're gonna really
wanna tune in to our our showtoday. But before we do that,
Tamara, is there anything youwanna update us on in terms of
your week?
Tamara (01:14):
Oh, I've just been busy. We wrapped up the rest at the
winery. And I guess the mostexciting thing I've done besides
harvesting is we I've been wentto a Grizz game. So football?
College football game, which wasfun.
So, yeah, it's kind of been myweek so far.
Leisa (01:37):
Very cool. Well, I I'm going to Vegas in a few days to
speak to EWomen Network aboutpublic speaking secrets for
business owners. So I'm gettingready to get on a plane, and I
hope the TSA people are thereand and working. But but I'm
(02:00):
also really looking forward tospeaking to a group of women
entrepreneurs. That'll be superfun.
So alright. So I wanted tointroduce our guest, Gabor
Kadas. And, welcome, Gabor.
Gabor K. Kadas (02:14):
Thank you for having me. Welcome as well.
Leisa (02:17):
Yes. I'm so excited to hear about your organization. Do
you wanna share a little bitabout how you got started? And
I'll drop the I'll drop thehint. It's it's called
friending.com.
Gabor K. Kadas (02:30):
Yes. So thank you very much. Basically,
friending, as its name suggests,deal with finding friends. And
why did I do this? Basically, Iguess it goes back to the way I
grew up.
I was born in Hungary, which isin Central Europe. I grew up in
London, UK, and then that'swhere I went to university.
(02:53):
After university, I moved toCanada. After being in Toronto
for five years, I moved to TheUS, to California, thirty years
ago, and I moved around inCalifornia. So, basically, as
maybe many of your listeners, Ispent a lot of time in a lot of
places and felt very, veryalone.
(03:14):
And, that is what prompted me todo an app which would safely
allow you to to meet otherindividuals with the same
interest in your geographicalarea. And safety is extremely
important as we verify eachusers on our app. The app is
(03:34):
spot friendly, and it's on theiOS App Store only at the
moment. Final version to belaunched towards the end of the
year, but it's already in betain the App Store. And as we
started internally consideringthis app, we looked at various
research and found out thatabout 60,000,000 people in The
(03:56):
US say they were alone.
So it's not biased research thatwe did. It's unbiased research
that's available on theInternet. So that's why we think
there's a real need for asoftware like this.
Leisa (04:10):
Wow. So the app is available on iOS right now. Yes.
Gabor K. Kadas (04:15):
It's not the final version. It's a
downloadable testing version.This version is free to use. The
final app, when it is launchedat the end of the year, will
have a monthly fee of $5 or anannual fee of $60 just because
we are going to verify eachindividual using a third party
(04:37):
app called Persona, which costus to do, and thereby making the
app safe. And not just safe, butmaking sure that there are no
fake profiles on the on the appbecause I don't have any
figures.
I don't think anybody is givingout any figures, but my guess is
(04:57):
20 to 40% of users on other appsare fake.
Leisa (05:04):
That is so scary that people are using fake I mean,
that's not surprising, but Ihope that you guys can come up
with a way to to combat that. Imean, how do you how do you do
that in the app world?
Gabor K. Kadas (05:20):
We basically use a third party app called
Persona, and what they do is,ask for your driver license and
a selfie and compare those to tomake sure that who you are is
the actual person that youreally are. And so there are no
bad actors. And then weencourage people to meet in
(05:42):
person, which is a crucialdifference because other, ads,
dominantly dating apps, reallyjust keep you online chatting
because that is their interest.And, we want to move you offline
as paradoxic as it may sound.We're using the app to connect
you, but then we encourage youto move offline, meet somebody,
(06:05):
do things together, and the onlyway you will become friends if
and when your phones are next toeach other.
So you can't fake that they arefriends. You can chat for a bit,
but then you have to meet inperson. Otherwise, there's no
point being on the app becausewe emphasize meeting in person.
Leisa (06:27):
That's such a great idea because I think sometimes we put
so much emphasis on, like,finding a romantic partner, but
our friends or especially if youmove somewhere like you were
sharing, you move from here tohere to here. I've I've had that
experience too where I'm like,well, I'm in the most beautiful
place, but I'm alone. What am Igonna do? Go knock on people's
(06:49):
door and say, like, will you bemy friend? So and this is, know,
in the nineties before we hadall the, you know, Internets and
applications and things likethat, but, I think that's a
really cool idea.
Gabor K. Kadas (07:02):
Yes. It is an absolute need, and people sweep
it under the carpet. They don'ttalk about it. Yet it is it is
more than loneliness. The socialeffect is not something like
$150,000,000,000 on the economy,which you may or may not care
about.
But more importantly, there isyour psyche, your own well-being
(07:24):
from depression. And I guesswhat shocked me not being a
medical person as I'm more of a,I I guess, software engineer
than a doctor, is that theactual harm it causes from
diabetes to dementia because youdon't speak to anybody. You're
just you're not using yourbrain, so to say. You're just
(07:47):
locked up in front of a screen,which is terrible.
Leisa (07:51):
Yeah. I remember, I kind of recently, maybe within the
last five years, that Harvardstudy came out where they
studied, I don't know, all thesepeople for years, decades they
studied, and they saidloneliness was one of the
biggest causes of all themedical issues that you're
talking about. Like, more thanany drug, more than any anything
else, that was, like, the worst,the worst thing to your health.
Gabor K. Kadas (08:17):
And it was a surprise to me. I can understand
depression, But causing youperhaps diabetes or stroke, it
was something I didn't think wasdue or had any connection to
isolation, yet yet studies provethat there is connection between
these two.
Leisa (08:36):
Yeah. So on the using the friending.com, or I'm saying
.com because I know it's an app,but the friending app, have you
found, personally that you'vemet any new friends?
Gabor K. Kadas (08:48):
At the moment, it's in in beta, and we are
encouraging people to to usethat. At the moment, it is free
of charge. And, basically, oncewe launch the real version, the
final version, there will be a,sliding scale where you can set
the distance that you're lookingfor in terms of friends. I think
(09:09):
it is limited to for 50 miles atthe moment, and you you set up
your activities, and hopefully,you'll find somebody nearby with
the same activity. We call thisare you in cards, meaning are
you into that activity?
And if you don't find thatactivity listed, you can always
add your own tag and your ownwall install enhancements,
(09:34):
etcetera. It will take some timefor the app to become widely
used. I'm hoping as peoplerealize that we're offering a
safe environment that no otherapp does, people will encourage
their their friends or friendsto be to sign up there. And just
one more note on safety. Shouldyou meet a person that you feel
(09:58):
uncomfortable with at yourmeeting when you, let's say,
meet in a coffee shop orwherever, you can actually tap
on the screen three times, andthat will do one of few things.
A, the setup, you can tell whoyou want it notified should
there be, quote, unquote, anemergency, so that could be your
(10:18):
friend, family, or whatever.Secondly, it could say what
anybody will do who is in theneighborhood or just in the
default is set to notify thepolice. So, you know, if you're
in an uncomfortable situationand you don't feel any other way
out, just tap the screen threetimes, and a alert will be sent
(10:39):
to one of these selectedindividuals.
Tamara (10:45):
So you haven't tested it out per se, like, with a large
group of people yet?
Gabor K. Kadas (10:51):
Yes. Basically, this will assume that there are
people using the app and any appuser in the neighborhood
because, we know where you arebecause of of your phone, could
come and help you out. Plus,also, I have to say that because
you've been verified, you're notthe brightest person to try
(11:12):
something because, we know yourreal name and address. So by by,
I I guess, the fact that you areverified, you're cutting down
the chances of being in asituation like this. But should
you be, this is a backup optionto help you out.
Leisa (11:32):
Have you with the beta testing, have you gotten any
neat stories from who's who'stesting it out so far?
Gabor K. Kadas (11:40):
No. Not yet. We have about ten, fifteen people
downloading it per day, which isnot a huge number, but we're not
advertising it, at the moment.We will have it on Instagram
and, Reddit and stuff like that.But what's interesting, it it's
the only way you practicallyfind the app today is if you
(12:01):
type in FriendInc, and thatshows how many people are
actually in need of a friendbecause it's not being
downloaded that many times perday.
If you just type in anythingelse, the App Store will put it
way, way down, so it's unlikelythat you will scroll down to
page 10 or whatever. But it thatmeans that people are actually
(12:24):
typing in Friendly becausethat's what they need, a friend.
Leisa (12:28):
I love the that use of the word friending. Like, I
don't think we use that termvery often. Even I mean, I know
it's a real word, but, like, itI think it's a really positive
thing that you're putting outinto the world. Well needed.
Gabor K. Kadas (12:45):
Interestingly enough, we were actually
trademarked the word frenting.We have a a US patent on the
frenting in terms of using it onan electrical software device,
which you would think as being acommon word, it would be
difficult. But I have to admit,we did this about seven years
ago when we first startedthinking about this application.
Leisa (13:06):
Wow. And you have a a long history of tech. Right?
Like, in software development?Yes.
Tell us a little bit about yourbackground?
Gabor K. Kadas (13:15):
Yes. That is why I think I was fortunate because
I could actually use theresources, meaning the software
engineers, to to solve thisissue. Yes. My background is in
software development,specifically video game
development, and not as,Friending Inc, but as Humansoft.
We have a thirty year backgroundin video game development from
(13:37):
Tomb Raider to Pac Man ports ofthe original for the actual
license holder.
Leisa (13:44):
Wow.
Gabor K. Kadas (13:45):
So that's what I took advantage of, meaning the
resources I have to solve thisreal social issue.
Leisa (13:51):
Have you always been, like, a big thinker like that?
To me, that's, like, a verybrave view to take on this
challenge for our for basicallythe world.
Gabor K. Kadas (14:01):
I guess if I want to be honest, maybe I was
selfish because I wanted tosolve a situation that I was in
because I would be one of those,give or take, 60,000,000 people
who would say that they arealone. And so I wanted a
solution for myself. And I guessas the saying goes, the
necessity is the mother of allinventions, and it was necessary
(14:25):
for me, hence I had to inventit, so to say.
Leisa (14:30):
That's so cool. Well, it's neat that you have the
skills to invent something likethat, and it's a pretty cool
story. So would you say youyou've lived where you live now,
you've lived there for a fewyears?
Gabor K. Kadas (14:44):
Yes. I moved to North Carolina a year ago, in
October, and I actually just,again, here as well, feel the
necessity of actually off theapp because I'd the nearest
person I know whom I've knownbefore is actually a three hour
drive away.
Leisa (15:02):
Oh, wow. So how did you start to make friends in the
last year? That would be hard, Ithink Yes. I'm the app yet.
Gabor K. Kadas (15:11):
Yes. I'm hoping once the app launches towards
the end of the year and myneighbors will sign up, it will
make it easier to find perhaps atennis partner or just simply
somebody to have a chat, youknow, over a coffee. So I'm not
looking for anythingadventurous, so to say. I'm just
looking to to meet people in theneighborhood, as I think most
(15:31):
people are.
Leisa (15:33):
Do you play tennis now? Do is that something you
currently do?
Gabor K. Kadas (15:36):
No. Because I don't have anybody to play
tennis with.
Leisa (15:39):
Oh, no. Are there any tennis clubs near you?
Gabor K. Kadas (15:44):
I I am sure there are, but I haven't
actually joined any yet to beall of this.
Leisa (15:50):
Okay, Gabor. We'll we'll have to pump you up a little bit
and then let you you know, gottaget out there. You know, can't
wait for the app to get startedbefore you find a friend.
Tamara (16:01):
What, Tamara? He's been a bit busy.
Leisa (16:03):
I know. He's trying to save the world.
Gabor K. Kadas (16:06):
But I'm trying to be socially responsible and,
Leisa (16:09):
you know,
Gabor K. Kadas (16:10):
give something back to society, so to say.
Leisa (16:14):
That's a beautiful I think that's one of the best
gifts you could ever give to befair.
Gabor K. Kadas (16:19):
You know, I I just feel that, you know, people
really should be more open togiving something back. And I
think this is one of theproblems of isolation. You you
don't know how, and you don'tknow who to give it back to, so
to say, because you don't knowanybody.
Leisa (16:37):
Right. And I can relate because what I do is I help
people become public speakers,and I really enjoy the process
of helping them come up withtheir message. But one of the
issues of being a speaker is ittakes the involvement of another
person, people, to fulfill thatgift. And so just speaking to
(17:03):
nobody isn't as fulfilling. Sothere is this dynamic of, like,
you you know, there'sinvolvement of other people.
It's not like doing art byyourself. It's it is a gift that
that requires the engagement ofothers.
Gabor K. Kadas (17:17):
Yes. And that's what we're hoping that friending
will do as well. It's it's onething developing it, but if
nobody uses it, we missed ourobjective. And the objective is
really the key here.
Leisa (17:30):
What other ways are you getting the word out?
Gabor K. Kadas (17:33):
Later on, when it's fully done, we'll have
influencers and, advertising iton Reddit. And also, an
interesting note, we'll have,selling coffee in terms of on
our website, on the friendingshop. And the reason behind that
is that people would probablymeet first in a coffee shop. But
(17:56):
the uniqueness about our coffeeis that there's a QR code on
each individual packaging, andthat QR code could represent
your message if you're sendingit to other people. This could
be a video or a song, a simplethank you.
So, basically, it is designed tobe sent to other people other
than enjoying it yourself. Butif you are sending it to other
(18:19):
people, you can send it with themessage. So the only coffee with
which you can send a messagewith is the Friending Coffee
available once the app launchesin the Friending Store in the
app itself.
Leisa (18:33):
So meaning, like, it's a certain actual kind of coffee?
Gabor K. Kadas (18:36):
Yes. It's real coffee coffee that you can
select from a list of coffees onthe on the app. And, basically,
there's a QR code that'sgenerated from the message that
you're sending. So, you know, ifI were to say, you know, thank
you for the podcast, if I and Isend that to you, when you scan
(18:58):
the QR code on your packaging,it will say thank you from
Kapoor. If you send a coffee to,you know, to Tamara, it will
say, here is your coffee,Tamara, or whatever you would
like to say.
This could be a video message,text message, her favorite song,
whatever. And, basically, allyou need to do is download the
(19:19):
app from the App Store. Youdon't need to register. You just
need to scan the QR code, andwhere you are able to read the
message that your friend sentyou via Ko fi.
Leisa (19:32):
Oh, wow. That's so how do you think of all these ideas?
Gabor K. Kadas (19:36):
Guess, as I said, I was born in Hungary, and
there's a saying aboutHungarians which says, if they
go in behind you in a revolvingdoor, they'll come out in front.
Mhmm. So take it to whatever wayyou like. It just means that
they're using a very, I guess,initiative in trying to think
(19:57):
outside of the box. So andthat's what we're trying to do
is is think of solutions.
We're we're competing againstmajor players and and more on
the dating side, yet I think weare able to offer something
unique that they do not offer.And in order to do that, you
have to think outside of thebox.
Tamara (20:18):
When so being a Apple user, when will it be ready for
Apples?
Gabor K. Kadas (20:25):
Yes. That's that's right, basically. You
know, doing things differently,I think, is the key.
Leisa (20:33):
I think it's already available on iOS as the beta.
Tamara (20:36):
Got it.
Leisa (20:36):
Yes. And then Got it.
Gabor K. Kadas (20:39):
And then see what
Leisa (20:40):
it takes.
Gabor K. Kadas (20:41):
There is the, Andreas version that we are
going to do. And one otherinteresting fact is how we're
going to get, I guess, people isthat there's such a thing called
speed friending, which issimilar to speed dating, except
you're looking for, friends. Andwhat we're doing is a companion
app to friending, especiallydesigned for speed friending
(21:05):
organizers that they could useto, advertise their, activity
on. And, basically, our our,our, I guess, URL is speed..com.
So in the the only place whereyou have speed.friending.com is
going to be on our domain name,and we're trying to, get speed
(21:30):
friending organizers to asktheir, I guess, people who sign
up to to also join on on thefriending app.
And in return, we will createthe QR code necessary to enter
the speed friending event.
Leisa (21:47):
Wow. Like you could do a tennis tournament or something.
Gabor K. Kadas (21:50):
Yes. That would be great.
Leisa (21:53):
Very fun. Well, thank you so much for being on our show,
and
Gabor K. Kadas (21:57):
Thank you for having me.
Leisa (21:58):
Yeah. What you're doing is just absolutely incredible.
I'm really excited for it tolaunch officially officially,
and that and then you get tofind your a friend, finally.
Gabor K. Kadas (22:10):
I have very much hopes, and I wish the same for
everybody else who's listening.
Leisa (22:14):
Wonderful. Alright, everybody. We'll see you soon,
besties. Thank you. Thank you,Gobar.
Bye.
Gabor K. Kadas (22:21):
Bye.
Leisa (22:25):
Hey, bestie. Thanks for listening. If you like this
episode, be sure to hit thatsubscribe button to get notified
of new episodes and check outcool Bestie gift ideas at
howimetmybff.com.
Tamara (22:36):
That's right. And also, leave us a review. Those reviews
help us out a lot and are one ofthe best ways to support us.
Leisa (22:43):
Yes. And if you have a fun story about how you met your
BFF, send us an email atinfo@howImetmyBFF.com. We would
love to hear about it.
Tamara (22:51):
Definitely. And, hey, maybe we'll have you on our next
episode. That would be awesome.
Leisa (22:57):
Until next time.
Tamara (22:58):
Love you, BFFs.
Hey, besties. My name's Leisa.
Tamara (00:03):
And my name's Tamara, and we're BFFs.
Leisa (00:06):
Tamara and I met when we were about 12 years old growing
up in good old Fairbanks,Alaska.
Tamara (00:11):
And we've been best friends forever since.
Leisa (00:13):
That's right. And that's why we've decided to have some
fun, friendly conversations withthe bestest of best friends.
Tamara (00:18):
We'll talk about how we became best friends, our
experiences together, and haveother best friends on the show
to share how they met. Whoknows?
Leisa (00:27):
You never know when you'll meet your next BFF.
Tamara (00:30):
Now let's get into it, how I met my BFF.
Leisa (00:34):
Welcome to another episode of how I met my BFF. Hi,
Tamara.
Tamara (00:39):
Hello, Lisa. How are you?
Leisa (00:41):
I'm good. I'm good. We have so many exciting things
happening today in terms of techchallenges, but we're gonna make
it through. I am very confident.And I'm really excited because
we of our guests today, this issomething that I think should
have been invented a long timeago.
And so if you are one of thesepeople who is wishing you could
(01:04):
find a friend, but you don'thave one, you're gonna really
wanna tune in to our our showtoday. But before we do that,
Tamara, is there anything youwanna update us on in terms of
your week?
Tamara (01:14):
Oh, I've just been busy. We wrapped up the rest at the
winery. And I guess the mostexciting thing I've done besides
harvesting is we I've been wentto a Grizz game. So football?
College football game, which wasfun.
So, yeah, it's kind of been myweek so far.
Leisa (01:37):
Very cool. Well, I I'm going to Vegas in a few days to
speak to EWomen Network aboutpublic speaking secrets for
business owners. So I'm gettingready to get on a plane, and I
hope the TSA people are thereand and working. But but I'm
(02:00):
also really looking forward tospeaking to a group of women
entrepreneurs. That'll be superfun.
So alright. So I wanted tointroduce our guest, Gabor
Kadas. And, welcome, Gabor.
Gabor K. Kadas (02:14):
Thank you for having me. Welcome as well.
Leisa (02:17):
Yes. I'm so excited to hear about your organization. Do
you wanna share a little bitabout how you got started? And
I'll drop the I'll drop thehint. It's it's called
friending.com.
Gabor K. Kadas (02:30):
Yes. So thank you very much. Basically,
friending, as its name suggests,deal with finding friends. And
why did I do this? Basically, Iguess it goes back to the way I
grew up.
I was born in Hungary, which isin Central Europe. I grew up in
London, UK, and then that'swhere I went to university.
(02:53):
After university, I moved toCanada. After being in Toronto
for five years, I moved to TheUS, to California, thirty years
ago, and I moved around inCalifornia. So, basically, as
maybe many of your listeners, Ispent a lot of time in a lot of
places and felt very, veryalone.
(03:14):
And, that is what prompted me todo an app which would safely
allow you to to meet otherindividuals with the same
interest in your geographicalarea. And safety is extremely
important as we verify eachusers on our app. The app is
(03:34):
spot friendly, and it's on theiOS App Store only at the
moment. Final version to belaunched towards the end of the
year, but it's already in betain the App Store. And as we
started internally consideringthis app, we looked at various
research and found out thatabout 60,000,000 people in The
(03:56):
US say they were alone.
So it's not biased research thatwe did. It's unbiased research
that's available on theInternet. So that's why we think
there's a real need for asoftware like this.
Leisa (04:10):
Wow. So the app is available on iOS right now. Yes.
Gabor K. Kadas (04:15):
It's not the final version. It's a
downloadable testing version.This version is free to use. The
final app, when it is launchedat the end of the year, will
have a monthly fee of $5 or anannual fee of $60 just because
we are going to verify eachindividual using a third party
(04:37):
app called Persona, which costus to do, and thereby making the
app safe. And not just safe, butmaking sure that there are no
fake profiles on the on the appbecause I don't have any
figures.
I don't think anybody is givingout any figures, but my guess is
(04:57):
20 to 40% of users on other appsare fake.
Leisa (05:04):
That is so scary that people are using fake I mean,
that's not surprising, but Ihope that you guys can come up
with a way to to combat that. Imean, how do you how do you do
that in the app world?
Gabor K. Kadas (05:20):
We basically use a third party app called
Persona, and what they do is,ask for your driver license and
a selfie and compare those to tomake sure that who you are is
the actual person that youreally are. And so there are no
bad actors. And then weencourage people to meet in
(05:42):
person, which is a crucialdifference because other, ads,
dominantly dating apps, reallyjust keep you online chatting
because that is their interest.And, we want to move you offline
as paradoxic as it may sound.We're using the app to connect
you, but then we encourage youto move offline, meet somebody,
(06:05):
do things together, and the onlyway you will become friends if
and when your phones are next toeach other.
So you can't fake that they arefriends. You can chat for a bit,
but then you have to meet inperson. Otherwise, there's no
point being on the app becausewe emphasize meeting in person.
Leisa (06:27):
That's such a great idea because I think sometimes we put
so much emphasis on, like,finding a romantic partner, but
our friends or especially if youmove somewhere like you were
sharing, you move from here tohere to here. I've I've had that
experience too where I'm like,well, I'm in the most beautiful
place, but I'm alone. What am Igonna do? Go knock on people's
(06:49):
door and say, like, will you bemy friend? So and this is, know,
in the nineties before we hadall the, you know, Internets and
applications and things likethat, but, I think that's a
really cool idea.
Gabor K. Kadas (07:02):
Yes. It is an absolute need, and people sweep
it under the carpet. They don'ttalk about it. Yet it is it is
more than loneliness. The socialeffect is not something like
$150,000,000,000 on the economy,which you may or may not care
about.
But more importantly, there isyour psyche, your own well-being
(07:24):
from depression. And I guesswhat shocked me not being a
medical person as I'm more of a,I I guess, software engineer
than a doctor, is that theactual harm it causes from
diabetes to dementia because youdon't speak to anybody. You're
just you're not using yourbrain, so to say. You're just
(07:47):
locked up in front of a screen,which is terrible.
Leisa (07:51):
Yeah. I remember, I kind of recently, maybe within the
last five years, that Harvardstudy came out where they
studied, I don't know, all thesepeople for years, decades they
studied, and they saidloneliness was one of the
biggest causes of all themedical issues that you're
talking about. Like, more thanany drug, more than any anything
else, that was, like, the worst,the worst thing to your health.
Gabor K. Kadas (08:17):
And it was a surprise to me. I can understand
depression, But causing youperhaps diabetes or stroke, it
was something I didn't think wasdue or had any connection to
isolation, yet yet studies provethat there is connection between
these two.
Leisa (08:36):
Yeah. So on the using the friending.com, or I'm saying
.com because I know it's an app,but the friending app, have you
found, personally that you'vemet any new friends?
Gabor K. Kadas (08:48):
At the moment, it's in in beta, and we are
encouraging people to to usethat. At the moment, it is free
of charge. And, basically, oncewe launch the real version, the
final version, there will be a,sliding scale where you can set
the distance that you're lookingfor in terms of friends. I think
(09:09):
it is limited to for 50 miles atthe moment, and you you set up
your activities, and hopefully,you'll find somebody nearby with
the same activity. We call thisare you in cards, meaning are
you into that activity?
And if you don't find thatactivity listed, you can always
add your own tag and your ownwall install enhancements,
(09:34):
etcetera. It will take some timefor the app to become widely
used. I'm hoping as peoplerealize that we're offering a
safe environment that no otherapp does, people will encourage
their their friends or friendsto be to sign up there. And just
one more note on safety. Shouldyou meet a person that you feel
(09:58):
uncomfortable with at yourmeeting when you, let's say,
meet in a coffee shop orwherever, you can actually tap
on the screen three times, andthat will do one of few things.
A, the setup, you can tell whoyou want it notified should
there be, quote, unquote, anemergency, so that could be your
(10:18):
friend, family, or whatever.Secondly, it could say what
anybody will do who is in theneighborhood or just in the
default is set to notify thepolice. So, you know, if you're
in an uncomfortable situationand you don't feel any other way
out, just tap the screen threetimes, and a alert will be sent
(10:39):
to one of these selectedindividuals.
Tamara (10:45):
So you haven't tested it out per se, like, with a large
group of people yet?
Gabor K. Kadas (10:51):
Yes. Basically, this will assume that there are
people using the app and any appuser in the neighborhood
because, we know where you arebecause of of your phone, could
come and help you out. Plus,also, I have to say that because
you've been verified, you're notthe brightest person to try
(11:12):
something because, we know yourreal name and address. So by by,
I I guess, the fact that you areverified, you're cutting down
the chances of being in asituation like this. But should
you be, this is a backup optionto help you out.
Leisa (11:32):
Have you with the beta testing, have you gotten any
neat stories from who's who'stesting it out so far?
Gabor K. Kadas (11:40):
No. Not yet. We have about ten, fifteen people
downloading it per day, which isnot a huge number, but we're not
advertising it, at the moment.We will have it on Instagram
and, Reddit and stuff like that.But what's interesting, it it's
the only way you practicallyfind the app today is if you
(12:01):
type in FriendInc, and thatshows how many people are
actually in need of a friendbecause it's not being
downloaded that many times perday.
If you just type in anythingelse, the App Store will put it
way, way down, so it's unlikelythat you will scroll down to
page 10 or whatever. But it thatmeans that people are actually
(12:24):
typing in Friendly becausethat's what they need, a friend.
Leisa (12:28):
I love the that use of the word friending. Like, I
don't think we use that termvery often. Even I mean, I know
it's a real word, but, like, itI think it's a really positive
thing that you're putting outinto the world. Well needed.
Gabor K. Kadas (12:45):
Interestingly enough, we were actually
trademarked the word frenting.We have a a US patent on the
frenting in terms of using it onan electrical software device,
which you would think as being acommon word, it would be
difficult. But I have to admit,we did this about seven years
ago when we first startedthinking about this application.
Leisa (13:06):
Wow. And you have a a long history of tech. Right?
Like, in software development?Yes.
Tell us a little bit about yourbackground?
Gabor K. Kadas (13:15):
Yes. That is why I think I was fortunate because
I could actually use theresources, meaning the software
engineers, to to solve thisissue. Yes. My background is in
software development,specifically video game
development, and not as,Friending Inc, but as Humansoft.
We have a thirty year backgroundin video game development from
(13:37):
Tomb Raider to Pac Man ports ofthe original for the actual
license holder.
Leisa (13:44):
Wow.
Gabor K. Kadas (13:45):
So that's what I took advantage of, meaning the
resources I have to solve thisreal social issue.
Leisa (13:51):
Have you always been, like, a big thinker like that?
To me, that's, like, a verybrave view to take on this
challenge for our for basicallythe world.
Gabor K. Kadas (14:01):
I guess if I want to be honest, maybe I was
selfish because I wanted tosolve a situation that I was in
because I would be one of those,give or take, 60,000,000 people
who would say that they arealone. And so I wanted a
solution for myself. And I guessas the saying goes, the
necessity is the mother of allinventions, and it was necessary
(14:25):
for me, hence I had to inventit, so to say.
Leisa (14:30):
That's so cool. Well, it's neat that you have the
skills to invent something likethat, and it's a pretty cool
story. So would you say youyou've lived where you live now,
you've lived there for a fewyears?
Gabor K. Kadas (14:44):
Yes. I moved to North Carolina a year ago, in
October, and I actually just,again, here as well, feel the
necessity of actually off theapp because I'd the nearest
person I know whom I've knownbefore is actually a three hour
drive away.
Leisa (15:02):
Oh, wow. So how did you start to make friends in the
last year? That would be hard, Ithink Yes. I'm the app yet.
Gabor K. Kadas (15:11):
Yes. I'm hoping once the app launches towards
the end of the year and myneighbors will sign up, it will
make it easier to find perhaps atennis partner or just simply
somebody to have a chat, youknow, over a coffee. So I'm not
looking for anythingadventurous, so to say. I'm just
looking to to meet people in theneighborhood, as I think most
(15:31):
people are.
Leisa (15:33):
Do you play tennis now? Do is that something you
currently do?
Gabor K. Kadas (15:36):
No. Because I don't have anybody to play
tennis with.
Leisa (15:39):
Oh, no. Are there any tennis clubs near you?
Gabor K. Kadas (15:44):
I I am sure there are, but I haven't
actually joined any yet to beall of this.
Leisa (15:50):
Okay, Gabor. We'll we'll have to pump you up a little bit
and then let you you know, gottaget out there. You know, can't
wait for the app to get startedbefore you find a friend.
Tamara (16:01):
What, Tamara? He's been a bit busy.
Leisa (16:03):
I know. He's trying to save the world.
Gabor K. Kadas (16:06):
But I'm trying to be socially responsible and,
Leisa (16:09):
you know,
Gabor K. Kadas (16:10):
give something back to society, so to say.
Leisa (16:14):
That's a beautiful I think that's one of the best
gifts you could ever give to befair.
Gabor K. Kadas (16:19):
You know, I I just feel that, you know, people
really should be more open togiving something back. And I
think this is one of theproblems of isolation. You you
don't know how, and you don'tknow who to give it back to, so
to say, because you don't knowanybody.
Leisa (16:37):
Right. And I can relate because what I do is I help
people become public speakers,and I really enjoy the process
of helping them come up withtheir message. But one of the
issues of being a speaker is ittakes the involvement of another
person, people, to fulfill thatgift. And so just speaking to
(17:03):
nobody isn't as fulfilling. Sothere is this dynamic of, like,
you you know, there'sinvolvement of other people.
It's not like doing art byyourself. It's it is a gift that
that requires the engagement ofothers.
Gabor K. Kadas (17:17):
Yes. And that's what we're hoping that friending
will do as well. It's it's onething developing it, but if
nobody uses it, we missed ourobjective. And the objective is
really the key here.
Leisa (17:30):
What other ways are you getting the word out?
Gabor K. Kadas (17:33):
Later on, when it's fully done, we'll have
influencers and, advertising iton Reddit. And also, an
interesting note, we'll have,selling coffee in terms of on
our website, on the friendingshop. And the reason behind that
is that people would probablymeet first in a coffee shop. But
(17:56):
the uniqueness about our coffeeis that there's a QR code on
each individual packaging, andthat QR code could represent
your message if you're sendingit to other people. This could
be a video or a song, a simplethank you.
So, basically, it is designed tobe sent to other people other
than enjoying it yourself. Butif you are sending it to other
(18:19):
people, you can send it with themessage. So the only coffee with
which you can send a messagewith is the Friending Coffee
available once the app launchesin the Friending Store in the
app itself.
Leisa (18:33):
So meaning, like, it's a certain actual kind of coffee?
Gabor K. Kadas (18:36):
Yes. It's real coffee coffee that you can
select from a list of coffees onthe on the app. And, basically,
there's a QR code that'sgenerated from the message that
you're sending. So, you know, ifI were to say, you know, thank
you for the podcast, if I and Isend that to you, when you scan
(18:58):
the QR code on your packaging,it will say thank you from
Kapoor. If you send a coffee to,you know, to Tamara, it will
say, here is your coffee,Tamara, or whatever you would
like to say.
This could be a video message,text message, her favorite song,
whatever. And, basically, allyou need to do is download the
(19:19):
app from the App Store. Youdon't need to register. You just
need to scan the QR code, andwhere you are able to read the
message that your friend sentyou via Ko fi.
Leisa (19:32):
Oh, wow. That's so how do you think of all these ideas?
Gabor K. Kadas (19:36):
Guess, as I said, I was born in Hungary, and
there's a saying aboutHungarians which says, if they
go in behind you in a revolvingdoor, they'll come out in front.
Mhmm. So take it to whatever wayyou like. It just means that
they're using a very, I guess,initiative in trying to think
(19:57):
outside of the box. So andthat's what we're trying to do
is is think of solutions.
We're we're competing againstmajor players and and more on
the dating side, yet I think weare able to offer something
unique that they do not offer.And in order to do that, you
have to think outside of thebox.
Tamara (20:18):
When so being a Apple user, when will it be ready for
Apples?
Gabor K. Kadas (20:25):
Yes. That's that's right, basically. You
know, doing things differently,I think, is the key.
Leisa (20:33):
I think it's already available on iOS as the beta.
Tamara (20:36):
Got it.
Leisa (20:36):
Yes. And then Got it.
Gabor K. Kadas (20:39):
And then see what
Leisa (20:40):
it takes.
Gabor K. Kadas (20:41):
There is the, Andreas version that we are
going to do. And one otherinteresting fact is how we're
going to get, I guess, people isthat there's such a thing called
speed friending, which issimilar to speed dating, except
you're looking for, friends. Andwhat we're doing is a companion
app to friending, especiallydesigned for speed friending
(21:05):
organizers that they could useto, advertise their, activity
on. And, basically, our our,our, I guess, URL is speed..com.
So in the the only place whereyou have speed.friending.com is
going to be on our domain name,and we're trying to, get speed
(21:30):
friending organizers to asktheir, I guess, people who sign
up to to also join on on thefriending app.
And in return, we will createthe QR code necessary to enter
the speed friending event.
Leisa (21:47):
Wow. Like you could do a tennis tournament or something.
Gabor K. Kadas (21:50):
Yes. That would be great.
Leisa (21:53):
Very fun. Well, thank you so much for being on our show,
and
Gabor K. Kadas (21:57):
Thank you for having me.
Leisa (21:58):
Yeah. What you're doing is just absolutely incredible.
I'm really excited for it tolaunch officially officially,
and that and then you get tofind your a friend, finally.
Gabor K. Kadas (22:10):
I have very much hopes, and I wish the same for
everybody else who's listening.
Leisa (22:14):
Wonderful. Alright, everybody. We'll see you soon,
besties. Thank you. Thank you,Gobar.
Bye.
Gabor K. Kadas (22:21):
Bye.
Leisa (22:25):
Hey, bestie. Thanks for listening. If you like this
episode, be sure to hit thatsubscribe button to get notified
of new episodes and check outcool Bestie gift ideas at
howimetmybff.com.
Tamara (22:36):
That's right. And also, leave us a review. Those reviews
help us out a lot and are one ofthe best ways to support us.
Leisa (22:43):
Yes. And if you have a fun story about how you met your
BFF, send us an email atinfo@howImetmyBFF.com. We would
love to hear about it.
Tamara (22:51):
Definitely. And, hey, maybe we'll have you on our next
episode. That would be awesome.
Leisa (22:57):
Until next time.
Tamara (22:58):
Love you, BFFs.
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