In a world where making friends as an adult often feels like scheduling a dentist appointment—necessary but mildly anxiety-inducing—Les Amis arrives with a refreshing proposition: what if finding meaningful connections didn't involve endless scrolling, awkward small talk or the dreaded "we should hang out sometime" that never materializes?
Anna Bilych, the 27-year-old Estonian tech founder (and former PayPal product manager), co-created Les Amis with Oleg Pashinin after moving for work and realizing what we all know deep down: making new friends in a new city is somehow harder than canceling a gym membership. So, in January 2022, they built the thing she wished existed: a way to meet like-minded women through shared interests and curated hangouts that don’t feel like forced fun. Les Amis—French for “the friends,” because yes, it’s trying to class things up a bit—isn’t just an app, it’s a low-key movement. Now live in 19 European cities and recently launched in Austin, Texas, it’s already hosted over 4,000 events and connected thousands of women who were just looking for a better way to hang out.
A smarter way to make actual friends
Les Amis takes the chaos of adult friendship-making and gives it structure—without killing the vibe. It starts with a short but surprisingly insightful application where you share the usual details (age, job, interests) and a few personality-driven prompts that help match you with people who might actually get your references. The app’s algorithm then slots you into a small, curated group based on shared energy and availability. No endless chat threads, no guessing who’s going to ghost—just a simple “here’s your group, here’s the plan, go.”
The real win? Everything happens offline. Les Amis hosts low-key events—pottery nights, yoga classes, wine tastings—where 8 to 12 women gather without the pressure of name tags or small talk marathons. According to Bilych, that 12-person cap matters: bigger groups tend to splinter. Events start with an intro circle (just enough structure to avoid chaos), and the activity gives everyone a shared memory to hold onto—even if your bowl turns out more blob than functional. You don’t have to make conversation, but you probably will. As Bilych puts it, “There’s always a conversation taking place.”
What happens after matters too. You can rate the event, mark who you vibed with and start building your “favorites” list. That way, you’ll know what they’re signing up for next—and you can casually just happen to show up, too. Because, as Bilych told me, “One connection is not enough. Building a friendship is the same as building a love relationship; you really need to meet again and again to become friends.”
Right place, right time, real people
The timing of Les Amis’ U.S. debut feels less like a rollout and more like a public service. According to 2024 U.S. Census survey, nearly 1 in 3 adults aged 18 to 24 report feeling lonely most of the time—compared to just 7% of retirees, who, it turns out, are doing just fine. Add in the stat from Psychology Today that 73% of Gen Z say they feel alone at least sometimes (if not always), and you've got a full-blown connection crisis on your hands.
Les Amis isn’t pretending to fix everything—but it is doing something refreshingly analog: getting people in a room together. Founder Anna Bilych told me their most important success metric isn’t time spent on the app. It’s time spent off it—at events, in conversation and, ideally, making actual friends. In an era of AI friend agents, dating bots that negotiate for us and apps that let us do everything except talk to another human, Les Amis is betting big on IRL still mattering. And honestly? It’s a bet worth backing.
More than just vibes and wine nights
At its core, Les Amis isn’t just about meeting people—it’s about actually finding your people. Yes, there are hangouts and happy hours, but there’s also space for support, mentoring and the kind of real talk that doesn’t usually happen over DMs. Whether it’s figuring out your next career move, picking up a new hobby or just finding someone to go to a concert with who won’t bail last minute, Les Amis is built to help women show up for each other in ways that matter.
Founder Anna Bilych sees this going way beyond curated group hangs. She’s building what she calls a “women’s super app”—a space where friendship meets life tools, with features that might eventually cover everything from mental health to money. And with expansion plans already in motion for cities like New York and D.C., it’s not hard to imagine Les Amis becoming the go-to for smart, community-driven connections in real life.
Not your average friendship app
In a sea of platforms promising “meaningful connection” and delivering little more than forced small talk, Les Amis does the radical thing of actually making that connection happen. It brings friendship back to its roots—shared experiences, actual conversations and the underrated joy of being understood by someone new. For women juggling the mess and magic of modern life, Les Amis isn’t just another app. It’s the one that might just make everything feel a little less disconnected.