Ad-funded social
Most social media is ad-funded. The product follows attention.
For investors
The family and community app that isn't social media.
Mountains gives households a private Hut to share goals, plans and progress, and will connect Huts into Villages. It has no feed, no likes, and no ads, and it never sells your data.
The problem
Families are climbing big things, mostly alone.
Goals live in separate heads and separate apps, and the apps meant to bring people together are built to keep them scrolling.
The opportunity
Loneliness is a public-health crisis and ad-driven social media is under legal fire. Mountains is the private, goal-based alternative for families and communities.
The Surgeon General's 2023 youth advisory names push notifications, autoplay, infinite scroll, likes and engagement algorithms as features that drive excessive use.
Surgeon General youth advisory, 2023In October 2023, 42 attorneys general sued Meta, alleging it designed features to addict children and teens.
New York Attorney General, October 2023In a large experiment, people who deactivated Facebook for four weeks spent more time offline with friends and family and reported higher well-being (Allcott et al., 2020).
Allcott et al., American Economic Review, 2020Nearly half of US teens say they're online almost constantly (Pew, 2024).
Pew Research Center, 2024False news was 70% more likely to be shared than true news on Twitter (Vosoughi et al., Science, 2018).
Vosoughi et al., Science, 2018The FTC's 2024 staff report found "vast surveillance" of users by large platforms that earn most of their revenue from targeted ads.
Federal Trade Commission, 2024About 1 in 2 US adults report loneliness, and the Surgeon General says the mortality risk of disconnection is comparable to smoking.
Surgeon General advisory on loneliness, 2023A 148-study meta-analysis found people with stronger social relationships had a 50% higher likelihood of survival (Holt-Lunstad et al., 2010).
Holt-Lunstad et al., PLOS Medicine, 2010
A different model
Mountains
Paid by Huts. No ads. No data sales.
Basic Hut is $9.99 a month, paid by the Hut.
Basic Hut
$9.99/month
Coming soon
Coming later
Village
A community of Huts.
The model
A person, a household, then a community.
Person
Mountains and Steps.
Hut
The household.
Village
A community of Huts.
Product today
What the beta includes.
- Hut creation with Sign in with Apple and GoogleIn beta
- Owner-provisioned seats with email and QR invitesIn beta
- Kid seats without a phone or an emailIn beta
- Mountains and StepsIn beta
- Age-aware examplesIn beta
- Shared calendar with Google Calendar syncIn beta
- TestFlight betaIn beta
- VillagesComing next
- AI step suggestionsComing next
- Hold-to-talk assistantComing next
Let's talk.
Interested in Mountains? Reach out and we'll share the deck.