Status hits 1M users in 19 days and 10x revenue growth in Q1 2026 with AI social role-play app

Speaker 2: And and things weren't like buckled down,

Speaker 1: you know. Usually on a boat even if you're in a palatial conference room, there's ways to, you know, bolt down certain certain items. Anyway, our next guest is from Status here, raising a series a what's going on? To the show.

Speaker 2: Hey, guys. Nice to nice to finally be

Speaker 1: on the show. We we gotta kick it off with the first question. Are you on a boat?

Speaker 7: No. Unfortunately, I'm in a a regular

Speaker 1: Okay. Our last our

Speaker 7: Very last nice very nice coffee room.

Speaker 1: Fantastic. Our last guest denied the allegations of being in boat, but he looked like he was on a boat.

Speaker 2: It's hard to believe.

Speaker 1: We have to ask everyone now. But that's not what we're here we're here to talk about. We're here to talk about you and your company. Please introduce yourself and the company.

Speaker 7: Yeah. So I'm Fai. I'm the CEO and cofounder of Status. Status is essentially a social entertainment app where users can live out their dream lives and play as anyone through the lens of

Speaker 2: a social network. So, for example, I could be a famous singer, I could

Speaker 7: be an actor, I could live inside the world of like my favorite book, something like Harry Potter. Could be, you know, the host of one of the most famous, you know, technology news shows on X, like

Speaker 1: Simulators. This is the thing.

Speaker 8: Can do anything.

Speaker 7: Yeah. Everything's a simulation.

Speaker 1: Yeah. So walk us through the actual customer experience. It feels like there's an element of social media here. There's also an element of like Yeah. A massively multiplayer online RPG. Are you pulling ideas from both places? What are the big inspiration points?

Speaker 7: Yeah. So essentially, when you go on status, the first thing that you do is you craft your persona, like who you're going to be. So I want to be a famous singer. I want to be a livestreamer. I can choose who my first follower is gonna be. I could choose someone from real life. All of our all of our characters on the app, all of the worlds on the app are created by users. We have over 5,000,000 characters on on the app, over 10,000,000 worlds. And you it looks like social media. It looks like x. And I think this is why it's really struck a chord with people, why we've grown so fast. Since we launched last year, when we launched last year, we went from zero to a million users in nineteen days. And it kinda just shows, like, the virality of of what we're doing. I think this product really it resonates with our user base, which is pretty young. Predominantly young women in The US and all across the world.

Speaker 1: How how gamified is it? What will what is the the the the goal of the players? Is there currency or something that they win?

Speaker 7: Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1: So How does that work?

Speaker 7: We basically made social media into a game. Right? So, you know, when you post on social media, now you get like obviously, you get followers, you get likes. Yeah. The same thing happens on status. You gain followers, you gain likes, but you also Everything you do has an outcome that will help you gain skill points, which helps you level up. We took a lot of inspiration from life simulator games like The Sims. And also, you know, our own background, my co founder built games on Roblox and Minecraft. So we it's really a mix of of, like, life simulator and and role play and, like, fandom related stuff and and really that, like, gamified world.

Speaker 1: How are you thinking about monetization long term? I'm sure it's early. You're venture capital backed. You don't need to charge an arm and a leg for this. But is subscriptions more aligned with the current customer experience? Or is like social media, I think, advertising?

Speaker 7: Yeah. So we actually have already started monetizing the products. When we basically Oh, hell yeah. I was not expecting that. Yeah. We already started monetizing. Yeah. We operate similarly to a game. Right? We have a we have in app purchases where you can buy power ups, things like that. Also have subscriptions with like, you know, weekly weekly subscriptions and annual subscriptions. And, we have, millions in in ARR. We 10 x revenue Wow. This first quarter twenty six. So we're we're ripping right now.

Speaker 1: Ripping. What

Speaker 2: is it like, what do you want people to what is what is the the business is ripping? You have a ton of users. What what are you hoping that users get out of it? Is it is it Yeah. Like, what is what is the sort of like overarching vision of of outside of just fun and playing a game, what you want users to get out of this?

Speaker 7: Yeah. I think that what status really represents is this We're moving into like a new, I think, phase of entertainment. So, you know, since like the beginning of time, you've always had to just, you know, sit and like read a story or or watch a story. I think what we can do now with LLMs and AI is that now you can really immerse yourselves into these, like, incredible, like, role playing engagement engaging experiences. I think that's what our users are are are doing. You know, when you watch a TV show and you get really obsessed with it, maybe you go to Reddit and read theories about what people are saying about it, connect with fans and talk talk about the show with them. You might go to Tik and and watch edits of of that show. Then you also and I think this is what the this next phase of what we're seeing people do, is that they're going on status and they're honestly immersing themselves into and thinking like, well, what if I was a character in that show? Who would I interact with? You know, what would that look like? And we're doing it through, you know, this lens of social media, which is so familiar to people because, you know, is on the same types of social media platforms.

Speaker 1: How does intellectual property work in this world? I mean, anyone can go draw a picture of Harry Potter and post it on their Instagram. But Yeah. If you're intermediating this and you're the one generating, a lot of the models will refuse some of the partnerships and there's a whole bunch of different solutions there. But what does that look like?

Speaker 7: Yeah. So everything on the platform, all the characters, all of the worlds are user generated. So similar so we like to think of it as like, you know, similar to how someone would, you know, can upload like a YouTube video talking about a TV show Yeah.

Speaker 1: Fair use. Or

Speaker 7: an artist. Yeah. It's it's the same thing except now with, you know, LMs and and with AI, you can create these AI generated worlds Mhmm. Based off of that based off of that show or book or whatever it is.

Speaker 1: Has there been pushback to this? I mean, obviously, your your core fan base loves it. They're paying for it. They're using the product. But AI is getting booed on stage. People are worried about Brain Rod and the Infinite Jest. Like, what has the pushback been like? Is it just you're off in your own little world and it's not actually confronting? Or have you had to grapple with any of the big questions about AI, social media, Brain Rod, etcetera?

Speaker 7: Yeah. So I think with our user base especially, and what we've kind of seen with AI is that the pushback that you see with younger people who don't like AI, it's because they feel like AI is replacing experiences that, know, things like art, things like music, things like that. Status isn't really replacing anything. We are a completely new experience that can really only exist with AI. And I think that's why our users are young, but they love Status, and they're really excited, you know, about the product. And in terms of, like, working with with, you know, these, like, entertainment companies and streamers, we've already started kind of know, we already started having conversations with some of them, and there is a real appetite of, I'm sure you've seen this now with Netflix shows or Amazon shows like HBO, whatever it is. There's a long wait between seasons. Right? Like, you watch a show and then you wait two years for the next season to come out. A lot of these streamers are thinking about, okay, how do I keep my audience engaged while we produce and make the next, you know, the next season of that show? So I think We go and create

Speaker 1: a million plot holes that will never resolve now. Of course, they've got to play in the world.

Speaker 2: What do you what do you think Meta's plans are around Interesting. Agents and bots and and this sort of, you know, simulated social media? They acquired Maltbook

Speaker 1: Yeah.

Speaker 2: They experimented with celebrity personas That's interesting. In the past. I feel like, if you guys if your metrics keep looking the way they're looking up and to

Speaker 1: the right, stock will eventually

Speaker 2: come in. He will try to clone you. It'll be a rite of passage. But but generally, how are you thinking about, you know, these sort of scaled social platforms and how they're thinking about integrating experiences like this?

Speaker 7: Yeah. I think that a lot of Definitely, I think there's a lot of interest from these big companies. And I think that what they're trying to do And I and I And it's exciting with what they're doing with, you know, acquiring Motebook. They acquired Gizmo as well. Like, they're really interested in these AI first experiences. But of course, we kinda just focus on what we're we're doing and, you know, just, you know If they copy us, they can try. But like, I think with

Speaker 2: Good luck.

Speaker 7: Like status. Exactly. Good luck. And I think that, you know, our users, and I think this is what makes us so sticky and why retention is so good, they've created these these worlds and stuff that they are they put a lot of work in, and and I and I think that that really shows in in our engagement and retention.

Speaker 2: Tell us about the fundraising to date. You've got some new capital. Let's hear it.

Speaker 1: What did you raise?

Speaker 7: Yeah. So we have raised 17,000,000 in

Speaker 1: seed in series

Speaker 7: a. Yeah.

Speaker 2: Funding. Congratulations.

Speaker 7: Thank you, guys. We're backed by Abstract

Speaker 2: Let's go.

Speaker 7: General Catalyst, Union Square Ventures. Also, LightShed Ventures YC. Bunch of guys. Fantastic. So shout out to them.

Speaker 2: Great lineup. Great lineup. Where are guys based? Yeah.

Speaker 7: We're based in New York. So consumer in New York, guys. Yeah. We have a team of nine, in the city. I'm actually in SF right now, so don't tell anyone.

Speaker 2: We won't. We won't.

Speaker 1: Well, thanks so I'm

Speaker 2: sure we'll, I'm sure we'll have you back on soon and yeah congrats on all the progress.

Speaker 1: Yeah. We'll talk to

Speaker 7: you Thank you guys so much for having me.