Why we're building the future of connection

Kae Porter, Founder of Amicii

Over my adult lifetime I've experienced many significant life changes that have meant building my social network over and over again. Moving away to university, relocating to the other side of the world, starting a family and, the most significant of all, finding myself as a single Mum of three boys in my late 40s.

I’ve had a lot of experience of rebuilding my network of friends and connections and, even as a natural introvert, I’ve never really found it that difficult. But this last ten years since my divorce has been a totally different experience.

Over the last 40 years the world has evolved into a global village. And the last 20 years has seen us drive up our online connection to the point where it seems that every facet of our lives exists almost exclusively online.

Like many people I've spoken to over the last ten years, I’ve felt like it was becoming so much more difficult to find enjoyable opportunities to meet new people. I’m lucky enough to have a great network of lovely friends, but what I found I really missed the most was the sense of celebration and joy you feel when you get to experience a great meal and stimulating conversation with a group of other likeminded people. Of seeing information about a fun event and being able to participate.

I wanted to experience that again and decided I would create something that provided this space and opportunity for everyone to enjoy that sense of human connection, whether as a way to build a network of deeper friendships or as a way to enrich life with shared experiences and great conversations.

I've been working on this concept for several years now and, after many discussions with lots of different people, I finally arrived at a model that I felt would give me exactly what I've been looking for. As someone who has been a natural connector of people since as far back as middle school (founding member of the Class of ’78 Thursday lunchtime disco club!), building community has underpinned my entire career. So, although delving into the world of tech startups is a new adventure for me, creating Amicii feels like a natural progression and almost like coming full circle.

With 1 in 3 of all Australian adults reporting that they feel lonely often, and all the associated health and societal implications that come with that, now is the time to try and find a way for us to reconnect in person. We evolved as a species to exist in groups, and as we continue to funnel more and more of our lives online it's impacting the very fabric of our society.

This is a social issue I’ve been trying to find ways to solve for many years and my hope is that Amicii can go some way to making a difference. Not just by connecting people to new friendships, but also in supporting existing social enterprise venues in their important role of being a place of community and connection for some of our most disadvantaged, and in helping to establish and support new initiatives.

It's been a long journey to get to this point of seeing exactly how I can help, and there's still a long way to go. But, as we embark on the final development of our first release product, I'm excited to see how the vision has evolved and come to rest in a place that will hopefully have a positive impact on many lives.

Amicii’s mission is to make meeting new people and building and maintaining social networks an easy and enjoyable experience. By enabling partner venues to create small group dining and other social experiences that connect people to new and existing friends the Amicii platform aims to create a more natural and organic way of connecting with others.

If you’re interested in finding out more, following our journey or even taking advantage of what Amicii will offer, head to the sign up to the waitlist.

I hope many of you will join us in this bold mission - together we can create a more connected world, one culinary experience at a time!