It Matters Who Builds It.
The People Behind Komyūn and Why It Matters
This month, for the first time in history, a social media CEO was held accountable by a jury. The verdict — in a case brought by a 20-year-old woman who says Instagram and YouTube hooked her as a child, worsening her depression, body dysmorphia, and suicidal thoughts — is being called social media's Big Tobacco moment. And it's hard to argue with that framing. Like the tobacco executives who spent decades insisting their products weren't addictive while internal documents told a different story, the leaders of our largest platforms have long hidden behind the language of connection and community while building something quite different: a system optimized for your attention, not your wellbeing.
The internal documents now entering the public record aren't surprising to anyone who has been paying attention. They confirm what many of us have suspected — that the people running these companies knew. They knew preteens were on their platforms. They knew the scroll was designed to be hard to stop. They knew the experts were raising alarms. And they chose, again and again, to prioritize engagement over the kids sitting on the other side of the screen. This trial wasn’t just about one young woman's experience, as important as her story is. It's about what happens when the people building our digital world aren't accountable to the people living in it.
It matters who builds it. And it matters what they care about — what their values are — when they do.
At Komyūn, we hold two things as first principles:
First: follow the money. Revenue model is destiny. The way a company makes money tells you everything about what it values and who it's actually building for — users, or advertisers. This is why Komyūn is an ad-free, community-first platform designed to prioritize human connection over engagement metrics.
Second: the team is the product. The humans building your experience make thousands of small decisions every day — about what gets built, what gets cut, who gets considered, and who gets forgotten. Their life experiences, their values, the challenges they've faced, the privilege they carry or don't — all of it shows up in the DNA of what they ship.
We wanted to be transparent about who we are, because we believe you deserve to know. So allow us to introduce our founding team. These are the people building for the people.
Lauren
“I couldn't keep optimizing other people's systems while the infrastructure underneath all of us was on fire. Komyūn is my answer to that.”
What communities have been most impactful in your life?
Soccer, unambiguously. It's the world's game — I played it in college, I coach it now with my kids, and I've been in cities where I didn't speak the language and found my people on a pitch within 48 hours. There's something about this game that dissolves every other difference. All you need is a ball and eye contact. One summer in high school I was in Tecate, MX building houses and one afternoon I joined a group of kids kicking a ball of rags around in the dirt. The joy on these kids’ faces - kids who had so little on this earth - mirrored my own as we played. It was the most beautiful human connection I have ever experienced.
What made you want to be part of building something new?
I've spent 15 years building organizations at the intersection of technology and community — coding bootcamps, coworking spaces, professional sports, workforce development. Every single time, the hardest parts weren’t getting humans to connect, it was finding technology that supported and powered that connection. Lately, I've watched technology actively drive people apart. I couldn't keep optimizing other people's systems while the infrastructure underneath all of us was on fire. Komyūn is my answer to that.
What do you want people to feel when they use Komyūn?
Like they just joined a pickup game. I want everyone to have that feeling like they just stepped onto a field and started playing a game they love with a bunch of people from who knows where.
Billy
“… as the year presented many challenges for all of us, personal and much larger, we have been able to show up for each other to talk and dance and play and let go of our suffering for a moment together.”
What communities have been most impactful in your life?
I've had a few friend groups throughout my life that have been extraordinarily impactful. They have rarely or barely overlapped and our common interest has been primarily to hang out, enjoy each other's company, and be there for each other when we can and uplift each other when we can.
What made you want to be part of building something new?
The most recent group was already fairly well formed by the time I joined. Selma (my partner) and I crossed paths with Joubin who was fun, then I met Amir who was super sweet. He introduced me to Omid. Omid and I instantly clicked. It turned into a dinner with Selma, Tina and a few friends. We started to meet up and invite each other more. Within about a year they have become so close and as the year presented many challenges for all of us, personal and much larger, we have been able to show up for each other to talk and dance and play and let go of our suffering for a moment together. I have always enjoyed building: myself and my skills, friendships, gadgets, and software and hardware tools. My favorite projects have included working with teams of people I enjoy working with. I had been on the lookout for a new project for a while and when I started talking with Lauren, I realized I wasn't necessarily looking just for the right project, I was looking for the right team.
What do you want people to feel when they use Komyūn?
When we use Komyūn, I hope we will all feel that sense of true connection with others who we know and hope to know, and with ourselves and the self we want to be. A warmth that comes from knowing the number of people we're surrounded with in each community is manageable.
Zarah
“I watched my own attention get stolen, slowly, and I noticed I'd become the unofficial photographer in every room, constructing a version of people's lives that was more cover story than truth.”
What communities have been most impactful in your life?
A pool hall in Los Angeles. I moved from Chicago not knowing anyone, and it was the most unlikely room that gave me everything — friends, work, belonging. Lawyers next to degenerates next to tech people, all of them held together by a shared obsession with a game. It taught me that community doesn't need a reason to exist beyond a common love for something. That stuck.
What made you want to be part of building something new?
I watched my own attention get stolen, slowly, and I noticed I'd become the unofficial photographer in every room, constructing a version of people's lives that was more cover story than truth. Everyone performing for an audience that didn't exist. I kept thinking about being a kid, spending whole days inside my own world until a friend would show up and we'd just… be together. No caption needed. I wanted that back.
What do you want people to feel when they use Komyūn?
Like they just moved into their neighborhood for the first time. That specific feeling, when everything familiar is suddenly interesting again. I want to give people back their own surroundings, and with it, a little access to joy that doesn't require social "stories" to earn it.
Will
“I want people to feel connected both to important people and communities in their life as well as their passions…”
What communities have been most impactful in your life?
The jazz community, both in NY and LA. Being around so many amazing musicians and having so many opportunities to play with and learn from them has been an integral part of my life ever since I got serious about music.
What made you want to be part of building something new?
The opportunity to learn and grow with the platform. Being a part of such a small, fast-moving team and helping wherever I'm most needed has been very conducive to me learning new skills and technologies that I wouldn't have developed working at a bigger company. I've also felt a high sense of ownership of the features I've worked on, and being able to implement integral new features end-to-end has been an amazing learning experience.
What do you want people to feel when they use Komyūn?
I want people to feel connected both to important people and communities in their life as well as their passions, and I hope they wonder "why hasn't something like this existed before?" — because I know I have.
The most powerful thing the Los Angeles trial has given us isn't evidence, or precedent, or even accountability — though all of that matters. It's a question, asked plainly and finally in public: Do the people building these platforms actually value the people using them beyond the ad dollars they generate? It's a question worth asking of every platform, every product, every team that holds the infrastructure of human connection in their hands.
We ask it of ourselves every day. It's why we build ad-free. It's why we obsess over who is at the table. It's why we opened a beta before we had all the answers — because we believe the people this platform is for should be part of building it. The team behind Komyūn is a team that has lived inside and built real communities — the kind that catch you when you fall, the kind that stay up too late and dance and play and let you put down your suffering for a moment. We're building Komyūn because more than ever before, we believe now is the time to leverage the best of technology to stop pushing us apart, and to start bringing us together.
