Prof G Markets First Time Founders: How Partiful Is Fixing the Loneliness Crisis
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Apr 4, 2026 
Shreya Murthy, CEO and co-founder of Partiful, built the event-planning app to help people connect offline. She talks about turning personal loneliness into a product people name-drop, surviving a launch straight into Covid, trusting real-world connection during the metaverse craze, and building with personality, creative freedom, and a monetization plan that avoids ads and data sales.
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Why Partiful Beat The Group Chat
- Partiful won by fixing real coordination pain, not by acting like a prettier group chat.
- Shreya Murthy says hosts needed one page for headcount, logistics, and messaging across fragmented networks like Instagram, X, and texts.
Loneliness Was The Founding Insight
- Shreya Murthy started Partiful from her own loneliness, not market research, after realizing parties build weak ties into real community.
- She argues screens turned entertainment into a solitary habit, so Partiful tries to make accessing real life almost as easy as scrolling.
Starting A Party Startup In March 2020
- Partiful officially began in March 2020, just as Covid shut the world down and made parties illegal.
- Shreya Murthy and Joy built virtual-party coordination, then added temperature, testing, quarantine, and masking features to test small outdoor betas.