Sircles

What Sircles does

Sircles Media, Inc. is a Sacramento-based, privately held social and local-discovery platform that operates the Sircles App, a mobile community where users share friend-to-friend recommendations for local businesses, restaurants, entertainment (movies, shows, podcasts), and activities inside interest-based group chats and a map-based discover feed. The product is built around an explicit "positivity-first" community architecture: every account is validated by phone number, trolls are banned for life, and the platform explicitly avoids ad-based revenue, distinguishing it from traditional review sites and incumbent social networks. Supporting the consumer app are three ancillary surfaces — the Business Portal (a self-serve SMB dashboard with profile control, coupon placement on a local map, and favorites analytics, priced at $20/month), the Sircle Store (branded merchandise), and Sircles Sesh (publicly streamed daily work sessions for transparency).

Monetization is narrowly concentrated on the Business Portal subscription plus merchandise, with the consumer experience free. The platform has accumulated 3.7M+ app opens since its February 2021 soft launch, 50K+ Google Play downloads, 70%+ 30-day retention, and 30+ active communities ranging from 68 to 24,000+ members across local (Sacramento Kings, MoodyBitez), entertainment (Netflix & Chill), and international (Meet the World, Rugby World) verticals. The company is founder-led (CEO John Worthington, CIO/President Todd Fiore, COO Daniel Hinkle), has raised approximately $6.47M across three disclosed rounds (2021, 2024, 2025), and is currently raising additional equity via StartEngine to retail investors at a $250 minimum. Its go-to-market blends community-led growth (network-effect sharing, gamification), product-led growth (free consumer app with self-serve SMB upgrade), and event-driven engagement (live work sessions and crowdfunding community).

Name

Sircles

Legal name

Sircles Media, Inc.

Website

https://sircles.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2021

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Sircles is a Sacramento-based mobile platform that turns friend-to-friend recommendations into a positivity-first community for discovering local businesses, entertainment, and shared interests. It serves consumers for free and monetizes via a $20/month SMB Business Portal subscription.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Social Discovery Platform

NAICS

Media Streaming Distribution Services, Social Networks, and Other Media Networks and Content Providers (51621), Media Streaming Distribution Services, Social Networks, and Other Media Networks and Content Providers (516210)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

Social Q&A & Knowledge Communities (BPAMABAI)

akta.pro secondary industries

Q&A Knowledge Communities (MPACAJAD), Q&A and Knowledge Discovery Platforms (BPAMAAAF)

Keywords

• Social recommendation app
• Local business discovery
• Community chat platform
• Mobile social networking
• Local merchant subscriptions

Headquarters

HQ city

Sacramento

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Business Profile Subscriptions: Businesses claim their profile page for $20/month, unlocking the ability to place coupons on a local map, gain full control over their profile, and access detailed analytics such as which users have 'favorited' their business. Simple, affordable, and automated subscription model.
2. Sircle Store Merchandise: The company operates a merchandise store (Sircle Store) selling branded apparel and items. This provides an additional revenue stream alongside the core subscription business.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Sircles operates a mobile social discovery platform that converts group chats into trust-based recommendations, allowing users to share and discover local businesses, restaurants, entertainment (movies, shows, podcasts), and activities with friends in a positivity-mandated environment. The company monetizes through $20/month business profile subscriptions that unlock analytics, map-based coupon placement, and profile control, with an ancillary branded merchandise storefront (Sircle Store).

Product overview

Sircles offers a unified mobile application combining social networking with location-based local business discovery and group communication. The core product is the Sircles App, a positive community platform where users share recommendations for local businesses, restaurants, entertainment, and activities with friends through interest-based group chats and a discover feed. Supporting the consumer app, the Business Portal enables local merchants to manage their profiles, post coupons, and access user analytics for $20/month. The Sircle Store provides a companion commerce layer, while Sircles Sesh offers transparency through live team work sessions. The platform is subscription-based (avoiding ad-based revenue) and targets users seeking authentic, troll-free social discovery as an alternative to platforms like Yelp.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Sircles App A free community-based mobile application designed as a positivity-first social discovery platform where individual consumers share recommendations for local businesses, restaurants, entertainment (movies, shows, podcasts), and activities with friends through interest-based group chats and a map-based discover feed. Available on iOS and Android.
• Business Portal A self-serve business-facing dashboard that lets local SMB merchants claim their profile page, place coupons on a local map, control their business profile, and access analytics on user favorites, sold as a $20/month subscription.
• Sircle Store A companion storefront platform linked to the Sircles ecosystem, featuring local business listings and branded Sircles merchandise.

Quantifiable outcome

• 3.7M+ app opens since February 2021 soft launch
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability1 record

Feature4 records

Scale indicators10 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Yelp: Yelp is the dominant consumer platform for local business discovery via reviews and ratings. Sircles explicitly positions itself as a positive, friend-driven alternative to Yelp for local business recommendations, making Yelp the most direct comparator in product and target SMB audience.
• Nextdoor: Nextdoor is a hyperlocal community platform for neighbors to share recommendations and information. Sircles shares the same neighborly, community-led approach to local recommendations but extends it beyond geography into interest-based fandoms and entertainment discovery.
• Foursquare: Foursquare pioneered location-based check-ins, local venue discovery, and SMB location advertising. Sircles overlaps directly in map-based local business discovery and SMB monetization, but layers on community-driven friend recommendations rather than check-in mechanics.
• Geneva: Geneva is a group-based social app organized around shared interests, communities, and events — very similar in structure to Sircles' interest-based chat groups. It competes for the same 'small, friendly community' use case, particularly among Gen Z and younger millennials.
• Meetup: Meetup enables interest-based local communities to organize events and gatherings. Sircles overlaps with Meetup in the formation of niche interest communities (Run Club, sports, fandoms) and the goal of converting online affinity into real-world activity.
• Alignable: Alignable is a network for small business owners to connect, refer customers, and share local recommendations. Sircles overlaps with Alignable in serving local SMBs with discovery and peer-to-peer recommendation mechanics.

Broad incumbents

• Tripadvisor: Tripadvisor is a major global platform for user-generated reviews and recommendations for travel, restaurants, and experiences. Sircles covers a narrower, community-led subset of the same review/recommendation use case that Tripadvisor dominates at scale.
• Discord: Discord powers interest-based community servers with chat, voice, and discovery features. Sircles' group chats organized by fandoms (Netflix, Drake, rugby, paranormal) overlap directly with Discord's server model but layer on local business discovery and positivity curation.
• Reddit: Reddit hosts thousands of interest-based communities (subreddits) where users share recommendations and discuss topics. Sircles competes with Reddit for community/discussion mindshare, especially around entertainment, food, and lifestyle niches.

Emerging players

• Untappd: Untappd is a social app for beer enthusiasts to check in, rate, and recommend beers and venues. Like Sircles, it combines social recommendation mechanics with local venue discovery, but in a single vertical niche.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/sircles_app
• YouTubeyoutube.com/@sirclesapp
• Facebookfacebook.com/sirclesapp
• Instagraminstagram.com/sirclesapp
• TikToktiktok.com/@sirclesapp
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/sircles

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles8 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds3 records

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Sircles