Sircles

About Sircles

Sircles is a social media application engineered to facilitate local business recommendations within a user's trusted network. The Sacramento-based company, founded in 2018 by John Worthington, Todd Fiore, and Daniel Hinkle, operates on a principle of curated positivity, deliberately excluding negative reviews and fostering a supportive online environment. The founding team, who previously collaborated on the company Tech2U, conceptualized Sircles to provide a trustworthy alternative to mainstream review platforms, focusing on recommendations from friends and family rather than anonymous strangers.

The platform's core function is to allow users to share and discover favorite businesses, entertainment, and services within their social circles. It distinguishes itself by structural design choices that block negativity; for instance, a user must first 'favorite' a business before they are permitted to comment on it. The application also incorporates gamification and rewards to encourage positive user behavior and sharing. In addition to individual sharing, the app features group chat functionalities for communities centered around various interests, with a patent-pending feature that automatically organizes conversations into subtopics when a recommendation is shared.

Sircles has pursued a community-centric funding strategy, raising over $9.1 million primarily through multiple rounds of equity crowdfunding on the Wefunder platform, eschewing traditional venture capital. This approach, termed the “Riding the Escalator” strategy by CEO John Worthington, aims to convert investors directly into loyal users and brand advocates. The business model is subscription-based for businesses, not reliant on advertising. For a monthly fee, businesses can claim their profile, which allows them to offer coupons, manage their page, and access detailed analytics about which users have favorited their establishment, while also receiving private feedback from customers.