We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Julie Griggs. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Julie below.

Julie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

I will start by saying that in no way, shape, or form was I (or my now co-founder) trying to start a business! We were just two single friends who hacked the system to solve our own problem, and then came to quickly realize the problem was affecting way more people than we thought. So here’s our founding story:

In 2018 I was in my final semester of my graduate program on my way to becoming a physician assistant. I had a six week clinical rotation in Manhattan and my best friend, Danielle, was kind enough to let me stay with her. Had she not, we wouldn’t be the co-founders of Fourplay Social today. I still remember the moment our brain child was accidentally born…

We were sitting in traffic along the East River and I began explaining my intentions for the next six weeks: “I really want to experience dating while I’m here, but you all tell me it sucks.” I continued my vent session by expressing that I was sad to have missed out on so many fun times with friends, because I sacrificed a lot for my career, so I also wanted to spend as much time with them as possible. There was only one logical thing to do in that moment…

We went back to Danielle’s apartment and changed her dating app profile to feature both of us. We made the name “Danielle & Julie,” made sure every photo on the profile was a photo with both of us, and we wrote that guys should only match with us if they had an awesome friend they could bring for a double date. Our friends told us we were embarrassing (oops!) and we had zero expectations when we published the profile, but the response we received was overwhelmingly positive. We had a ton of guys telling us that our idea was genius, that it was the way singles should be meeting, and a few guys even encouraged us to make it into its own app.

When we saw the response we were getting, and shared it with our loved ones, our families were adamant that we had something special. My brother told me that if we didn’t try to start this business someone else would and we would kick ourselves for letting the opportunity pass.

At first Danielle was extremely apprehensive about it. She was happy working as a nurse and I was about to start my career as a PA. She had no interest in trying to start a business. But I knew with absolute certainty that Fourplay would only be a success if both Danielle and I were doing it, not just one of us. We compliment and balance each other perfectly, know how to effectively communicate with one another, and our chemistry as a duo is unmatched.

Once I told Danielle we were going to call the app where single friends double date Fourplay she said, “Okay, there’s no way I CAN’T be part of the business if we’re going to call it Fourplay.”

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a nurturer by nature and am extremely passionate about bringing people together and making a difference. I earned my masters degree in Physician Assistant Studies from Rutgers University after earning a bachelors degree in Health Policy & Administration from Penn State University. I graduated from Rutgers as the recipient of the Dean’s Award of Excellence for Outstanding Service, an honor given to one physician assistant student in the program.

I started my career at a Federally Qualified Health Center providing primary care to the medically underserved. And then, in an unexpected plot twist, I found myself as the Co-founder of Fourplay Social. Danielle (my best friend, co-founder, and fellow healthcare professional) and I quickly recognized that giving friends the opportunity to experience dating together was the more fun, lower pressure, and *safer* way for singles to meet. Our early adopters became Fourplay super fans and some of our biggest supporters to this day. We’re on a mission to create a healthier experience for singles, physically, mentally, and socially while still maintaining a fun and playful brand.

The dating apps have ruined the experience of being single. They aren’t social (perpetuating the feeling of loneliness), they put way too much pressure on singles, and worst of all they pose a legitimate risk to physical safety and emotional wellbeing. Fourplay solves this by making single life fun and taking the pressure off. On Fourplay users team up with another single friend, fill out a shared profile, and then browse other pairs of single friends. If your team likes a team, and that team likes you back, it’s a match! A group chat is generated where the four of you can get to know one another and plan to meet for a double date.

The Fourplay App is currently available on iOS in the greater New York and Boston areas. If you want us to come to your city next you can join the waitlist on our website (www.fourplaysocial.com).

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

The “founder/startup” journey certainly is not for the faint of heart. It’s extremely difficult and you’re going to be told over and over again that you’re going to fail. You have to really believe in what you’re building and in its future success, or you’re going to be too tempted to quit when things get too challenging. There have been a lot of hurdles along our journey, but I firmly believe that each of them has made us better co-founders, better leaders, and has made Fourplay a stronger business. Danielle and I both speak very openly about our personal struggles with physical and mental health so I’ll share a story about what happened right before we launched Fourplay.

The months leading up to the launch of the Fourplay App Danielle was not in a good place. She wasn’t really interested in helping with Fourplay and she seemed totally deflated. A few weeks before we launched it was recommended by her outpatient program that Danielle go for inpatient treatment for her eating disorder. This would mean that she would not have access to her phone or the Internet and we would not have any communication with each other for an unknown length of time. Danielle expressed to me that she felt she couldn’t go, because it would mean leaving me to run the business by myself, and I had just started my first full-time job as a primary healthcare provider. She didn’t think that was fair to me.

To me, it wasn’t a question for one second. Danielle had to go. First of all, mental and physical health always come first (especially when it’s your best friend) and second of all there was no way Danielle would be able to run a business if she couldn’t take care of herself. That was already becoming evident. Would it suck to have to do it by myself for a bit? Of course. But what would suck more is not giving Danielle the grace to do what was best for her, because that would also mean not doing what was best for the business.

For several weeks Danielle and I had no communication with each other and when she came back from treatment there was A LOT of friction and tension between us. I felt protective over what I had been building in her absence and she felt like she no longer had ownership of the company. I had to learn to relinquish some control and trust that Danielle could do things. We had several difficult conversations, but we had to, both for the sake of our friendship and the sake of our business. That was one of the darkest times for both of us, but we came out of it as stronger co-founders. If we can get through that we can get through anything…

…like working the frontlines during the COVID-19 pandemic and fundraising during one of the worst economic climates for startups, because we did that, too!

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Our social media was b-a-d in the beginning. It was static, boring, and too sterile. Nobody cared about it and I think our friends only liked our posts because they are our friends. Then we met someone who became an unofficial mentor to me (shoutout Kim Kaupe) and she gave us this advice: People don’t care about brands, people care about people. She thought Fourplay would have way more online success if our social media wasn’t about Fourplay, but about Danielle and Julie, the founders who are also single and also use Fourplay.

We changed up our social media strategy and it changed everything for us. Our content started going viral and we started building a legitimate brand presence.

I will say that this worked well for our brand, because we are a consumer app, but it might not be the best or the right approach for other companies. But posting consistently and staying true to your brand is important when building a social media presence.

I would also add that establishing your own personal online presence could be the key to more success. I started using LinkedIn in 2022 and decided that I was going to be the person who doesn’t use LinkedIn the way it’s supposed to be used… because that would be off-brand for me to use anything properly… I tried different tactics – longer posts, shorter posts, funnier posts, more serious posts, early morning posts, late at night posts, and I kept testing until I figured out what resonated with my audience. Once I figured it out I honed in on it. Building this presence on LinkedIn has allowed me to cross paths with a lot of people I wouldn’t have otherwise, and has been a huge reason why we were able to fundraise.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.fourplaysocial.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fourplaydating/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliegriggsfourplaysocial/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/fourplaydating_
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@fourplay_app_for_singles?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc