# FirstMove, as Markdown The core of https://firstmove.live as a single plain-text document, for readers and agents who would rather not render the site. This mirror is maintained by hand and covers the evergreen pages only. Live listings (events, VibeZones, blog posts) change too often to mirror here: use https://firstmove.live/sitemap-index.xml for those, and https://firstmove.live/llms-full.txt for a structured reference. Last reviewed: August 2026. Real events. Real people. Real connection. --- ## Homepage **Not a dating app.** 500 strangers walked past you today. None had to stay strangers. FirstMove turns any space you're already in into a place you can actually meet someone. Privacy as architecture, not a setting. Free on iOS and Android. Consent-first by design. Built for anywhere people gather. ### Anywhere people gather FirstMove activates wherever connection can happen: bars, parks, gyms, festivals, gigs, clubs, conferences, campus, cafés, co-working. Not a nightlife app. A VibeZone can switch on in a park, a gym, a coffee shop, a conference floor, or a club. If people gather there, FirstMove fits. ### The problem Rooms full of people. Phones full of nothing real. You walk past 500 potential connections a day. You speak to none of them. You go home and tell an AI chatbot how your day went. Dating apps reduced people to swipes. Feeds reduced moments to scroll. Cold approaches feel awkward at best, threatening at worst. So nobody moves. The room stays quiet. We didn't build another social network. The world has enough of those. We built the bit that's been missing: a safe, mutual way to make the first move when you're already in the room. ### The scale of it Third-party published figures, not our own. - More than 1 in 4 adults in Great Britain feel lonely often, always, or some of the time. (Office for National Statistics) - More than 1 in 3 people aged 16 to 29 say the same, making them the loneliest age group in the country. (Office for National Statistics) - 871,000 deaths a year are linked to loneliness worldwide, and it affects roughly one in six people. (WHO Commission on Social Connection) ### How it works: the 3-Way Handshake Three steps. Both parties have to mean it. Nothing happens without mutual consent. 1. **Knock.** Spot someone interesting nearby. Send a Knock. They see you noticed. Nothing happens unless they Knock back. 2. **Challenge.** If the interest is mutual, a Challenge confirms it. Two people, both opted in, both ready. No accidental matches, no DM spam. 3. **Connect.** Now you can talk. A short chat built to push you toward saying hello in person. When the place closes its VibeZone, the chat ends with it. Profiles only exist while you're in the VibeZone. The chat closes when the event ends. Nothing follows you home. ### What we stand for Privacy is the architecture. Not a setting you toggle. - **Consent-first by design.** Nothing happens without mutual opt-in. The handshake is the product. - **Ephemeral by default.** Profiles, chats, and presence reset when the event ends. No long-term digital residue. - **Hyperlocal, never global.** Location data stays inside the geofence. We don't follow you home. - **Built for IRL.** The win condition is you putting the phone down and saying hello. ### The product: four threads - **Discovery.** Find what's on, where you are. A live feed of what's happening around you. - **VibeZones.** Social, only when you're there. Geofenced activation, ephemeral profiles, the 3-Way Handshake. - **Event Management.** Run the room, not a spreadsheet. Publish events, schedule residencies, flip on a VibeZone. - **Analytics.** Know what happened. Don't surveil anyone. Aggregate, privacy-first insights. ### Closing Real life is already happening. Be there. Free on iOS and Android. No social graph to build. No follower count to maintain. Walk in, activate, meet someone real, walk out. --- ## Features - **Overview:** https://firstmove.live/features - **VibeZones:** how geofenced VibeZones work and how attendees connect inside them. - **3-Way Handshake:** the consent-first connection protocol (Knock, Challenge, Connect). - **Privacy:** identity protection through ephemeral profiles and anonymous-first architecture. - **Discovery:** how attendees discover people and VibeZones around them at live gatherings. - **Event Management:** tools for organisers and venues to create, manage, and activate VibeZones. - **Analytics:** engagement and attendance analytics for partners and operators, aggregate only. --- ## For partners One programme, three ways in. Event organisers, venues, and independent promoters all sign in to the same partner dashboard at https://partners.firstmove.live. - Organisers: https://firstmove.live/partners/organisers - Venues: https://firstmove.live/partners/venues - Promoters: https://firstmove.live/partners/promoters - FirstMove Partners overview: https://firstmove.live/partners - Pricing: https://firstmove.live/pricing ### Switching Keep your ticketing. Add the layer it never had. Adding FirstMove does not mean moving off Eventbrite, DICE, Skiddle or whatever you already use. Run us alongside it, or bring ticketing across. Either way, the VibeZone is the reason your room changes. - **Option one: keep what you have.** No data import, no audience export, no rebuild of your event listings. People buy tickets the same way, from the same place, at the same price. - **Option two: bring ticketing across.** FirstMove Partners ships ticketing, payouts and white-label event pages. Free events carry no ticketing fee, and paid ticketing starts from 2.5% + £0.30. - **Either way, tickets are optional.** A VibeZone is tied to a place and a time window, not a ticket. What adding FirstMove actually involves: 1. Claim your venue or organisation in the partner dashboard. 2. Draw the geofence for the space, or pick the venue we already have on file. 3. Set the time window, or schedule it as a recurring residency. 4. Tell your crowd the room is live. --- ## Compare Every one of them stops at the door. FirstMove starts there. ### Ticketing and event platforms - **vs Eventbrite:** Eventbrite stops at the checkout. FirstMove owns the hours that decide whether anyone comes back. - **vs DICE:** DICE gets fans to the door. FirstMove is what makes the night worth repeating. - **vs Skiddle:** Skiddle fills the guest list once. FirstMove is why the room fills again next month. - **vs Luma:** Luma collects the RSVP. FirstMove makes sure the people who showed up actually met each other. ### Conference networking apps - **vs Brella:** Brella books meetings weeks out. FirstMove wins the part of a conference nobody scheduled. - **vs Swapcard:** Swapcard runs the programme. FirstMove runs the only part delegates remember. - **vs Whova:** Whova hands you a directory. FirstMove hands you the thing a directory cannot: a safe way to actually approach someone. ### Consumer social apps - **vs Meetup:** Meetup needs a schedule, a group and a commitment. FirstMove needs you to walk through a door. - **vs Bumble BFF:** Bumble BFF starts a conversation with someone across town. FirstMove starts one with the person in front of you. - **vs Tinder:** Tinder is a dating app. FirstMove is the presence layer for real life. Full pages: https://firstmove.live/compare --- ## SoulFire FirstMove's own event programme: the rooms FirstMove hosts, as opposed to VibeZones, which are the layer switched on inside a partner venue. Formats run on a heat scale, where the room shrinks as the heat rises: - **Ember** (up to 24, 90 minutes, daylight): brunch, coffee and pastries, Sunday walk, gallery hour. - **Kindling** (up to 18, 2 hours, early evening): listening session, board games, life drawing, run club. - **Blaze** (12 to 16, 3 hours, evening): supper club, seated dinner, wine and small plates. - **Blue** (2, 2 hours, evening): paired dinner, the long lunch for two. True at every heat: come on your own, nobody is networking at you, the 3-Way Handshake does the introducing, it ends when it ends, and every format is capped. - Programme: https://firstmove.live/events/soulfire - London: https://firstmove.live/events/soulfire/london --- ## Security and trust - Data encrypted in transit and at rest. - Role-based access with least-privilege defaults, single sign-on, multi-factor authentication, and audit logging on production systems. - Data minimisation: the minimum needed to make the product work, kept no longer than needed. Match data is short-lived by design and never sold to third parties. - Documented incident response covering detection, triage, containment, and notification. - Operates under UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. - Sub-processor list available on request. Full detail: https://firstmove.live/security. CSAE standards: https://firstmove.live/legal/csae. --- ## Frequently asked questions **What is FirstMove?** The presence layer for the physical world. Walk into a venue, festival, conference or campus running a VibeZone and the app switches on, letting you connect with people who are actually in the room through a consent-first protocol called the 3-Way Handshake. Walk out and it switches off. **Is FirstMove a dating app?** No. There is no swiping, no follower count and no social graph to build. People use it to meet collaborators at a conference, find their crew at a festival, or say hello to someone at a gig. Romance is one possible outcome, never the product. **How does the 3-Way Handshake work?** Knock, Challenge, Connect. Nothing reaches anyone who has not opted in, so there are no unsolicited messages and no accidental matches. **What happens to my data after the event?** Your profile only exists while you are inside the VibeZone. When the event ends, the profile, the chat and your presence end with it. Location data stays inside the geofence. **How much does FirstMove cost?** Free for attendees on both iOS and Android. Venues, organisers and promoters pay for the partner platform. **I already sell tickets through Eventbrite or DICE. Do I have to switch?** No. FirstMove runs alongside whatever you already use. **Where does FirstMove work?** Anywhere people gather and a VibeZone has been switched on. --- ## Company - About: https://firstmove.live/about - Manifesto: https://firstmove.live/manifesto - Press: https://firstmove.live/press - Careers: https://firstmove.live/careers - Contact: https://firstmove.live/contact - Changelog: https://firstmove.live/changelog - Blog: https://firstmove.live/blog Founded by Jahmai Enime (CEO) and Promise Ekoriko (CTO). Member of Google for Startups and Microsoft for Startups. © 2026 FirstMove. FirstMove Labs.