Why the CLIQ exists.
You keep saying you want to do more — the dinners, the run club, the gallery thing Thursday. But your friends are busy, going alone is strange, and “we should hang out” has never once meant soon. So you don’t go.
Adult friendship has a logistics problem
Austin, to start — and it isn’t a shortage of things to do. It’s not knowing who to go with.
Adult friendship has a logistics problem — and it isn’t a shortage of things to do. It’s not knowing who to go with.
CLIQ fixes the who. It learns who you are, watches what’s happening around you, and sends you to the things you’d actually love — with a small cliq of locals you’d actually click with. Go once, and if the room’s right, you keep them. The next plan finds you. Then the one after that.
Researchers put a number on it: about 200 hours together before someone’s a real friend. Most of us never get there as adults, because we never get past the first night. CLIQ is built to get you to 200.
We keep it small on purpose. A cliq is a handful — some grow bigger, some stay a handful forever. When a room’s full, it locks — because the things that matter are the ones not everyone gets into.
Two things come with a seat: your people, and the city. Membership turns Austin into something closer to a clubhouse — dinners on us and on our partners, a room on East 6th, the lake when it’s warm. The best rooms, kept for the room.
It starts with a Founding Circle — the first 111. They seed everything: each can start a cliq and put people forward, and the city fills from the inside out. That’s the whole growth plan. No ads — just the right people bringing the right people.
Umar Brimah
Founder, CLIQ
“Most careers in venture capital start in an investment bank or an Ivy League classroom. Mine started with a process server handing me a 600-page federal trademark lawsuit — from my own university.”
I built an entertainment company. It did well. Got sued. Thought that was the end. Turned out to lead to a career in venture capital.
At Baylor, I built a profitable experiential agency — promoting concerts and festivals, including shows with Travis Scott and Lil Jon, and moving thousands of tickets on organic reach alone. Months after I graduated, my own university filed a 600-page federal trademark suit over a festival name. I couldn’t afford a lawyer, so I represented myself — and settled with no financial penalties.
The coverage didn’t end my career; it started it. It opened the door to Capital Factory, then to work across Austin venture — GVC Partners, Unknown Ventures, Assure Syndicates, and the Austin Venture Association — and a place on the Forbes 30 Under 30 local list for Austin.
Today I’m a resident at Antler, building software that helps people find their people. CLIQ is what that work is for: a way to get you out of the house, into the right room, and next to a few locals who actually become your people.
Umar Brimah — Founder, CLIQ
The whole idea, in four parts
How CLIQ thinks about getting you out of the house and into a room that becomes yours.
We fix the who
There’s no shortage of things to do. CLIQ handles the part that stops you — who to go with.
A cliq, not a crowd
A handful of locals chosen to be in the room with you. Small enough that everyone actually meets.
Built for 200 hours
About 200 hours together makes a real friend. We’re built to get you there, one good night at a time.
Small on purpose
A cliq stays small enough that everyone actually knows everyone. Some grow big, some stay seven people forever — both are the point.
The right people, in the right room. That’s the whole idea.
Austin, to start. Tell us a little about you, and the right rooms start coming your way.
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