IRL Versus URL: The New Scarcity
Andrew Yeung, known as the new Gatsby of the New York scene wrote something in April I found quite interesting. He said:
“We're going to see an explosion of in-person events in the next year. As our feeds and inboxes get sloppified by AI, we'll lose our ability to discern what's real and credible.
Which means more people will turn to the only real thing left: in-person. I'm seeing it already. For many of my partners, dinners are their MOST effective sales channel. Because, frankly, everyone is sick of automated AI outbound agents hitting you up on DMs, phone, email, etc. If you know how to put a room together, you won't just be a great community person. You'll be a great salesperson too.”
This makes sense as a counter-reaction to the ever encroaching digital world. One that took over our lives due to the pandemic lockdowns that started in 2020. Most of us did not see anyone for a year, sometimes even two. Just full on zoom calls at home. No human contact. IRL came back hard after 2022 but with the tidal wave of AI, the physical world has only gotten more important. And in demand.
Entrepreneur, creator & community builder Aleksandar Svetski wrote on this trend of more offline activities: "As a result, what I’ve been saying for over a while now, which I’m reiterating here is that over the next 5 years, social networking is going to increasingly move offline. And it’s all going to happen through events, experiences, social clubs and offline/hybrid communities.
This means anything from a dinner through to a retreat and up to a conference. Or a run club, a women’s social club, a private men’s club, or the hundreds of creator, entrepreneur and lifestyle clubs and communities popping up all over the world.
I don’t care if it’s existing event organisers, or creators or brands - they are all going to become increasingly “community” oriented, and look to build deeper relationships with and turn their audiences & their customers into real, IRL communities.
Even physical venues like retail shops & cafes will undergo a massive transformation (they already are) into spaces that people want to come to and hang out in. I saw this a couple months back, and it reflects what I saw in real life while I was traveling, and what I mentioned above about brands like Othership, Soho House and Equinox (not to mention the tens of thousands of others around the world).
As AI continues to eat the internet, more value, more people and more social activity will migrate offline. Events, experiences, social clubs, IRL Communities, curated trips, date nights, you name it. This is where the opportunity is. This is where the puck is going. This is where I am playing. This where you should go."
Source: https://remnantchronicles.substack.com/p/the-rise-of-the-experience-economy
So if you believe this thesis Jonas Willett takes this further and calls IRL the anti-Ai hedge.
“IRL is going to crush AI over the next 5 years. In the last 3 months, $750M+ in capital was deployed on "anti-AI" bets. Big players are doubling down on their investments in events, experiences and in-person connection.
@cornerapp, a social map app for Gen Z, has grown to 60K+ users helping people curate and share places to meet IRL—"Google Maps but social." Everyone ik in NYC loves them.
@partiful, @poshvip_, and @LumaHQ have raised a combined $60M and are exploding. Partiful hit 500K+ MAU, Posh hit 6 million registered users, and Luma has over 2 million users signing up for events.
Harvard alum @aidaxbaradari just launched @be_inaudible, the first smart device to stop unwanted audio recordings and keep IRL conversations private.
@mcuban made a massive bet, investing in Burwoodland, a NYC-based live-events company behind IRL experiences in the US, Canada, and Europe.
Former COO and CPO of Hinge officially launched Rodeo to help people spend more time IRL with friends.
@a16z keeps doubling down on IRL via investments and a16z Build — a dinner series and community for founders / operators figuring out their next move. @nazzari, @katiekirsch, @eriktorenberg.
Billion-dollar companies are paying $$$ for community and events leads:
-@AnthropicAI: Events Lead - $320k
- @Substack: Events Lead - $190k
- @VaynerMedia: Head of Experiential - $250k
- @Spotify: Global Experiential & Content
- $175k - @BiltRewards: Director of Events & Experiences - $150k
Investors are pouring billions of dollars into AI. But smart money is quietly deploying millions into IRL at the same time. a16z backs both OpenAI and Partiful. ElevenLabs and Substack.
The nuance is - it's not AI vs. IRL. It's that the more we live online, the more premium real-life connection becomes. They're not competing investments. They're a hedge on each other.”
Source: https://x.com/jonaswillett1/status/2029271728052920729
Dan Romero gives his take as well and this is further extension of the need for IRL in the gathering storm of AI:
“I'm long a permanent, significant increase in demand for meatspace proof-of-work and other AI-proof experiences
-nature / outdoor
-activities live sports, both watching and playing
-live entertainment, e.g. music, comedy, theater, ballet, debate)
-physical hobbies, e.g. woodworking, gardening, cooking
-board games and retro videogames, e.g. modretro”
Patrick O'Shaughnessy had interviewed Ari Emanuel, the Chairman of Endeavor/WWE & the TKO Group which owns the UFC, is easily one of the most savvy businessmen out there. He reports: “Ari's bet on live sports and events has been so right
-In a world of a 4-day work week and infinite content, the demand for live is only going up -Knicks Finals tickets are at all-time highs
-US Open tennis tickets broke last year's records
And the limit of what people will pay for premium experiences has essentially no ceiling.”
His bet is against over-reliance on easily replicable digital/IP while leaning into what's hard for AI to commoditize. Offline unique events at a bigger scale.
Net net: If I had to sum it up. IRL is truly the anti-AI hedge. Not as scalable as digital but just as valuable. Balaji Srinavasan said it well: “The digital divide has reversed. Digital is cheap, ubiquitous, often fake. Physical is the premium product now.” Makes absolute sense to me. So get offline, touch wood and go meet people and do stuff in IRL. Invest accordingly too.