As children of immigrants, finding creative solutions to remain connected to loved ones has been integral to our earliest understanding of community building. From the use of cassette tapes, calling cards, writing letters, and now, almost instantaneous textual, verbal, and visual contact through messaging apps, our elders were at the forefront of modeling the importance of maintaining relationships, despite the overwhelming challenges that come with living physically apart from family and friends.

In 2020, most of the world struggled and/or adapted to employing innovative ways to maintain social connection. For our family, that looked like Keinter overcoming his fear of privacy loss and downloading the various popular messaging and gaming apps that kept us connected during that time; Jovan fielding preferences and creating systems to keep our family physically and emotionally safe during in-person gatherings; and Joelle, who was LA-based and car-averse, driving cross country in record time to reunite with our family on the east coast. We were privileged to have each other and intentional about social connection.

Today, in this increasingly mobile, fast-paced, and precarious world, we find ourselves yearning for deep, intentional, consistent connection with our close loved ones. We are acutely aware of how work, school, and familial commitments and the constraints of capitalism have led us to live increasingly separate lives, to the detriment of our physical, mental, and emotional health. Ekilib was birthed to address this perceived gap between social responsibility and personal wellness.

Ekilib is a mobile platform that fosters authentic and meaningful social connections by prioritizing ease, privacy, community, and self-expression. We provide a synchronous private scheduling tool for users to connect with their community in ways that they find supportive. Our mission is to use ethical, human-in-the-loop, community-centered algorithms to address and remediate the health consequences of loneliness and social isolation– one connection at a time. We envision being an integral part of community building as humans integrate technology throughout their lives. By becoming a central pillar of future communities we will be an essential and profitable institution in an increasingly digitially integrated world.

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