Alex Vans wants guys to have more friends.
With American men in the midst of a nationwide friendship recession, the Alexandria resident recently launched the newest version of Choros, an application dedicated to helping men in the D.C. area make real connections. The app sifts through more than 100 events for groups of three to six guys based on their preferences, from ax throwing to playing pool and watching the World Cup,
“I think the sweet spot is like six people,” Vans told ALXnow. “It’s small enough and intimate enough where you can kind of feel known and connected in a hangout that doesn’t feel like a giant networking event where you get lost in.”
A Fairfax County native, Vans moved to Alexandria’s Warwick Village neighborhood with his fiancée in February, after living in Arlington for five years. Before that, he lived and worked in New York City for five years. When he returned to Northern Virginia, all of his old friends had moved away, and rebuilding his stock of friends meant a lot of intentional networking.
“When I came back, I really found myself having to rebuild communities from scratch,” Vans said. “My relationship with social media, I think, is that of probably a lot of people, that reluctant addict sort of realizing that you’re not getting any actual social value out of it.”
In late 2024, Vans hired a friend of his to help build a simple web app to get groups of guys together to hang out over shared interests. Months later, he says he got a few dozen guys together and showed them the app.
“I asked them if they wanted to break into groups of four to play darts, play pool and go to trivia,” Vans said. “They came back to do more events a couple more times and told me we should make this a lot bigger, so it’s just been steadily growing since then.”
The app costs $40 every three months. Users fill out a questionnaire and then get recommendations from Choros’ app agent, Emma, for upcoming activities.
“A lot of meetups fall apart after the event,” Vans said. “We leverage a recommendation algorithm that pushes the same people kind of together in the same spaces repeatedly.”
Vans said that he’s looking for investors.
“I’m continuing with the linear growth until it’s obvious for an investor to come in and say, ‘This is a great bet,'” Vans said.
Vans graduated with a bachelor’s degree in the arts from James Madison University. A jazz guitarist by training, he worked as a professional musician in his 20s before moving to New York and getting a job at a call center for the healthcare marketplace Zocdoc. He was later promoted to be a sales manager and in 2021 worked as the head of mid-market business development for Tennessee-based healthcare startup Symplr. Until this year he was the director of growth operations and business development at the Arlington-based Practicing Excellence, which provides training to healthcare workers.
Vans says he’s made lifelong friends with the app.
“I think it’s really healthy to just have a consistent openness to bringing in new interesting people,” Vans said. “I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to do that. Actually, five of the guys that I met through the app are actually coming to my bachelor party and my wedding.”
