Strangers dining at the first Timeleft special event in New York on June 12.Supplied
At a Middle Eastern restaurant in East Vancouver, a woman confides to her dinner companions about her likely decision to become a solo mother in her 40s. A few seats down, another talks about the recent death of a loved one. Her eyes well with tears as she recounts the hours they would spend discussing philosophy and poetry.
There is lightness and levity around the table as well: cocktail-fuelled chatter about karaoke favourites, embarrassing childhood moments, a quest to develop six-pack abs.
The people gathered this late June evening are total strangers, matched through the app Timeleft. After answering a lengthy questionnaire about their personality, identity and dining preferences, participants are algorithmically matched with five others in their city for dinner on a Wednesday night, the restaurant kept a secret until that morning. There are no expectations, but a chance for connections to develop organically.
The app’s first dinner took place in Lisbon in May, 2023. The gatherings have since expanded to more than 80 cities across 23 countries, according to the company. Since launching in Canada a year later, it has convened more than 400 people a week for dinners in Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary and Ottawa.
Maxime Barbier, the French entrepreneur who founded Timeleft, says that unlike some apps that prompt users to input whether they are seeking to date or make friends, the app’s open-ended nature leads to more serendipitous encounters.
“Of course, some people are looking for love,” Mr. Barbier, 39, said in a phone interview from Paris.
“But a big part of it is people who want to meet new friends, who want a bit of novelty. We have people who are new to a city and don’t know where to start to join a community. And, some people say, ‘I like Timeleft because these people are strangers. I can be who I really am and talk about everything.’ ”
Maxime Barbier, CEO and co-founder of Timeleft, showing his tattoo to Timelefters, which represents how much time he statistically has left to live.Supplied
Recent data from Statistics Canada show that 13 per cent of people aged 15 and older report often or always feeling lonely, with women and those aged 15 to 24 more likely to report higher levels of loneliness. Research has shown that those who are consistently lonely experience worse mental health, lower life satisfaction and an increased risk of mortality.
A 2017 report by the non-profit group Vancouver Foundation found that, of about 3,800 Metro Vancouver residents surveyed, around half said they found it difficult to make friends, while about one-quarter said they found themselves alone more often than they would like. About half said it would be easier to make new friends if they could find people with similar interests.
A proliferation of new apps and platforms has sought to meet these needs, with some facilitating video chats with strangers and convening local women to go for group walks.
Timeleft initially launched as a platform to match people based on dreams and ambitions – items they wanted to check off their bucket list with their “time left.” (Mr. Barbier, who has a tattoo on his left forearm that he updates each year to remind him of how much time he is statistically supposed to have left on Earth, acknowledges the name can seem grim to some.)
It soon became apparent to him that having similar goals wasn’t enough to create meaningful connections, and the app pivoted to pairing people to do activities in their city. Still, Mr. Barbier found the dynamics too similar to a dating app, which he was trying to avoid, and the activities expanded to become group outings. That removed the is-this-a-date awkwardness, but the success of group hikes and cooking classes still depended on the quality of participants, he said.
He and his team discovered that what did work well were restaurant gatherings.
“We decided to push this idea a bit further,” he said. “We said, ‘We’re going to make this the easiest possible: You’re not going to choose the people, you’re not going to choose the place, no profile, no swiping. You just get your ticket, show up and the rest is magical.’ ”
Recent data from Statistics Canada show that 13 per cent of people aged 15 and older report often or always feeling lonely, with women and those aged 15 to 24 more likely to report higher levels of loneliness.Supplied
At the June gathering in East Vancouver, two tables of six had four cancellations, which left a combined party of eight. The group included two people who work in tech, an accountant, a data scientist, a public relations consultant and an interior designer, with roots in Canada, Australia, Dubai, India and Italy. They had all learned about the app from an Instagram advertisement; two participants had attended prior dinners.
It is Nello Sansone’s second group dinner. The 30-year-old accountant moved to Vancouver from Toronto three years ago and signed up looking to meet like-minded people and expand his friend group.
“I thought it was pretty cool that you could go for dinner with a bunch of people who had answered similarly to you, and it’s not really a dating environment or anything like that,” he said.
The conversation is easy and free-flowing, but the app also helps facilitate discussions with icebreaker questions: What’s the best thing to happen to you this week? What part of your job doesn’t feel like work? What’s the hardest decision you’ve ever had to make? How did you come to that decision?
The group shares small plates and stories, socializing for 3½ hours until they are the last table remaining and wait staff gently note the closing time.
Ellie Fraser, who had moved to Vancouver from Sydney, Australia, one month prior, said it seemed an ideal way to meet people while also trying new restaurants.
“More things like this should exist,” said Ms. Fraser, 28. “As adults, it can be hard to make friends, and while something like this can be a bit scary, it’s been great.”