Barrii

At most networking events the people who should meet are in the same room and never find each other. They talk to the people they came with, or work the edges of the room until it is time to go.

Barrii started at Startup Social, the founder night Gary runs in Sheffield on the last Thursday of every month. We wanted a room where nobody had to work out who to talk to.

How a night runs

Guests join on their phones, with no app to install, and tell Barrii what they need and what they can offer. The host runs the room from one screen. Barrii pairs people on that fit, makes a trio when the numbers are odd, and runs timed rounds with a short handover between each: a game a pair plays together on their phones, a shared quiz, and a pact each pair makes for the next thirty days.

The matching is plain rules rather than an AI call, so it is instant and works the same way every time, which matters when a hundred people are waiting for their next round.

Beyond Startup Social

Barrii now runs other formats too: match and chat, team up, debate and open chair. It has been used at Digital Forge and the Fishbowl at Cutlers' Hall in Sheffield, each with around a hundred people, and at a connection event for students at Sheffield Hallam.

We built it ourselves. It is the kind of product we help other people build: small, specific and used in a real room.