SlideSocial bets on a ‘social layer’ to rethink how people meet in Indian cities

In cities like Mumbai and Bangalore, connection hasn’t disappeared. It has simply changed form. Interactions are lighter, faster, and often easier to walk away from. Plans are tentative, conversations are brief, and over time, people feel they can get away with very little effort.

For many urban users, this shift has created a gap. Not in access to people, but in the quality of interactions. Cafes are full, events are frequent, and yet finding the right room, the right table, or even a meaningful conversation continues to feel harder than expected.

Digital platforms have played a role in shaping this behaviour. Dating apps made introductions scalable, but also reduced interactions to profiles, labels and quick decisions. Offline spaces, in contrast, often assume a single purpose, turning social discovery into structured formats such as mixers or speed dating.

SlideSocial, a Mumbai-based startup founded by Rajeev ‘Chico’ Roy (ex-Tinder, Uber) and Sneha Chaturvedi (ex-Girl Effect, Flamingo), is attempting to build around this gap. Rather than positioning itself purely within the dating category, the platform describes itself as a “social layer for the city”, focused on enabling how people meet across both online and offline contexts.

“Most products in this space assume people know exactly what they’re looking for,” says Chaturvedi. “In reality, people step out for a mix of reasons. Sometimes it’s curiosity, sometimes it’s company, sometimes it’s just wanting to be out. What’s missing is not access, but depth. People want to be in rooms where they’re known, where someone remembers them.”

The company’s approach starts with its offline layer. Instead of large, high-energy events, SlideSocial focuses on smaller, more intentional formats such as supper clubs, artist-led evenings, photowalks and hobby-driven gatherings. Some of these are hosted directly, while others are listed on the platform to improve discovery of existing communities and events that often operate in silos.

The idea is to act less as an organiser and more as a layer that connects fragmented experiences. By bringing together different communities and formats, the platform aims to make it easier for users to move across spaces without being tied to a single type of interaction.

Alongside this, SlideSocial offers an online layer designed to support discovery when users are not actively attending events. The interface moves away from swipe-based interactions, allowing profiles to evolve over time through posts and prompts. Conversations are structured to encourage more deliberate engagement, including limits on concurrent chats and built-in nudges that ensure against ghosting.

At a system level, the platform uses a community-led model where new members are voted in by existing users. This, the founders say, is less about exclusivity and more about maintaining a shared level of intent. There is also a strong emphasis on safety, particularly from a women-first perspective, which informs product design. The liveliness check during profile creation is case in point, preventing catfishing.

Underlying much of this is a simple idea: effort matters. The platform is designed to reward participation over passive browsing, whether that is through richer profiles, smaller gatherings, or conversations that are expected to go somewhere rather than fade out.

While SlideSocial can be seen as part of the broader ecosystem of platforms for people navigating single life, it deliberately avoids anchoring itself in that category. Instead, it positions itself as infrastructure for urban social interaction, one that extends beyond a single outcome.

Still early and currently bootstrapped, the platform is expanding gradually across cities, prioritising density of interaction over rapid scale. The founders believe this slower approach is necessary to build something that holds up outside the screen.

At a time when both digital and offline social experiences are being re-evaluated, SlideSocial’s bet is that better systems can lead to better behaviour. And when people show up differently, the rooms, conversations and relationships that follow begin to feel different too.