Ditch the Feed: Atlanta’s Startup Sonaara Connects People in Real Life, Not Online

Want to get more connected?

Sonaara, a startup building in Atlanta, is ready to help. The app-based startup from founder and CEO Dany Hernandez Gonzalez. The Emory University graduate believes spontaneous, in-person hangouts are more crucial than ever for young Gen Zs who want to connect outside of social media.

The company leveraged two local accelerators — the It Takes a Village program at Atlanta Tech Village and the newly-launched Techstars Emory Founders Catalyst — to get the idea off the ground and get the app into the hands of new customers.

After its launch, Hernandez answered our questions about Sonaara’s launch, its future plans, and its goals in creating a better hangout experience for “social explorers” and local businesses alike.

Here’s a look at our Q&A about Sonaara:

QUESTION: Take us back to the start of Sonaara. How did you know it was the right time to build this type of platform?

I’ve always believed that the most meaningful connections happen spontaneously—like striking up a conversation with someone at a coffee shop and walking away as new friends. Right now, especially for Gen Z, there’s a growing demand for in-person connections that go deeper than traditional social media. With Sonaara, we’re leveraging technology to facilitate those authentic moments and real-life hangouts. Our platform is built around enabling people to say, “I want to do something fun right now—who’s with me?” and then instantly making that connection happen.

QUESTION: Who are your target customers? What type of people/businesses do you think will find the most value in using Sonaara?

Sonaara is a double-sided marketplace that provides value to both users and businesses. In terms of our users, we’re primarily targeting what we call “social explorers” aged 18–30—people who love discovering new places and value forming genuine connections with others. This could be a college student who’s new to Atlanta, or anyone simply looking to make a new connection. On the business side, we’re focusing on locally owned restaurants, coffee shops, bars, and other community-minded venues. These are the places that thrive on spontaneous foot traffic and value being part of a vibrant, social scene. The great thing about Sonaara is that we are there to help users on those Friday nights when they feel the most pain from FOMO or loneliness in a way that other apps fail to alleviate. We connect users in real-time to others—and, simultaneously, to these welcoming local businesses.

QUESTION: Saw on LinkedIn you are working with restaurants like Aviva. How do restaurants benefit from working with your platform?

Restaurants benefit by gaining instant reach and visibility to high-intent individuals who are actively looking for a place to gather right now. If you’re a Mexican restaurant offering a $2 Taco Tuesday special, you can post that deal on Sonaara. Users browsing for a spur-of-the-moment hangout see your promo, “ping” their interest, and potentially show up as paying customers the same day. Our subscription model can pay for itself quickly—often in just one or two group visits—greatly reducing customer acquisition costs and making it an affordable way for venues to be part of the social discovery process. Millions of people already use social apps to connect with others and meet up. What Sonaara does is bring local restaurants into the conversation, enabling our users to match around the shared interests of experiencing a local venue.

QUESTION: What is the origin of the name Sonaara?

I wish I could say it’s a dazzling stroke of genius, but it’s really quite straightforward. We call our real-time meetup opportunities “pings,” and on a sonar device you detect pings—hence the “Sonar” root. We then added an extra “a,” which gave us “Sonaara,” a word that feels both memorable and refined. The two “A’s” in the middle also symbolize the pairs (or connections) we’re helping to create.

QUESTION: What lessons have you learned from the 2 accelerator programs you are in?

Both the It Takes a Village pre-accelerator at Atlanta Tech Village and the Techstars Emory Founders Catalyst have been game-changers for us. The mentorship, peer support, and networking opportunities have helped us refine our product-market fit and strengthen our pitch. We’ve also learned the importance of moving fast, iterating often, and staying closely connected to our community of users. These programs really emphasize the need to test assumptions quickly and pivot when necessary—especially critical for a startup like ours that’s building a community-driven platform.

QUESTION: What is your focus in 2025?

Our top priority in 2025 is growth—specifically, growing our user base across multiple cities. With the app now live on the App Store, we’re investing heavily in marketing and brand awareness. We want people to immediately think of Sonaara when they’re looking for a spontaneous hangout, ensuring that in each new city, there’s already a lively user community waiting for them. Our goal is to get at least 10,000 users in Atlanta by the end of the year, and then branch off into other cities like New York or Miami.

QUESTION: Is Sonaara focused on a specific city/geography starting off?

Yes, we’re beginning in Atlanta. Because the success of an app like ours hinges on having enough users in one area to create robust real-time connections, we roll out on a city-by-city basis. We build hype, make sure there’s a solid community excited to join, and only then launch the app in that location. Atlanta is my home base from college, and the city’s entrepreneurial scene is flourishing, with resources like the Atlanta Tech Village, Startup Atlanta, Tie Atlanta, etc., making it the perfect spot to plant our roots.

QUESTION: What are your biggest needs as a startup right now?

Like many startups, our biggest need is user acquisition — getting more people onto Sonaara so they can create vibrant, in-person connections. We’re also eager to forge strong partnerships with local businesses that see the value of spontaneous social experiences. Finally, we’re always open to strategic support and funding opportunities that can help us accelerate our vision and expand our footprint. We are using our demo days from our pre-accelerator programs to kick-off our fundraising efforts.