Tim Schaecker, a TikTokers with 8.8 million followers and a member of the German boy band Elevator Boystoday officially launched a new social networking app in an effort to encourage other content creators to connect with their communities in a deeper way and rethink social media and the creator economy.
CNDO (pronounced “condo”) allows content creators to create private social rooms for their followers to engage in a community-wide group chat, participate in challenges, and receive exclusive updates from their favorite influencers.
The challenge feature is the central focus of the platform, as CNDO believes that working towards a common goal can help strengthen connections with people online. For example, creators can encourage their followers to build healthy fitness habits and share daily updates about their workouts with each other. So not only do fans connect with their favorite influencer, but they also learn about each other as individuals, explore new things, and form genuine friendships. The company also hopes that challenges will motivate users to keep coming back to the app, allowing for a healthy app retention rate.
“As a creator, I’m not in the spotlight,” Schaecker told TechCrunch. “I’m more of a community member, and that’s it [CNDO] it’s all relative. We want to focus on the end user, on getting better with these challenges and on being able to meet like-minded people.” Although Schaecker is mostly known for posting lip sync and dance videos online, his CNDO club is dedicated to other passions like reading, fashion and going to the gym.
Image Credits: CNDO
At launch, there are 11 creators on CNDO, including surfers Sofia Chiara and Shane (@shane_dk), as well as influencers in the sports, ASMR and beauty space such as Jannes Werner, Jannis Reichmuth and Lucas Muller, including. There is no follower count requirement to create a community on CNDO. However, the company says creators must present their “idea strategy” and CNDO determines whether they are a good fit for the platform.
Creators have the option to limit these communities and certain experiences through a monthly subscription. CNDO takes a 20% commission.
Future plans for CNDO include creating a main community to bring all users together to gather in one place, discover new influencers and participate in more challenges. There will also be opportunities for creators to collaborate with brands. For example, a sneaker brand can have instant access to a running-focused chat room and interact with real customers.
Image Credits: CNDO
Schaecker started his TikTok career while studying business administration at the University of Mannheim, with the long-term goal of creating a tech startup. Schaecker developed CNDO with his two co-founders, Kian Seifert and Jordi Walder, who studied business and data science, respectively. CNDO launched its beta in October with 820 users, advertising a waiting list of more than 5,000 people.
In May 2023, the startup secured $1 million in pre-seed funding, backed by notable angels such as German pop singer Sarah Connor, Presize founder Leon Szeli (acquired by Meta), Wefox founder Julian Teicke, top senior McKinsey partners and others.
The rest of the Elevator Boys are also listed as investors, including Bene Schulz, Jacob Rott, Julien Brown and Luis Freitag (who would eventually start their own communities on CNDO). While it started as a group TikTok account between friends in 2021, the Elevator Boys are now an official music group, recently releasing their first official single, Runaway, which now has 2.7 million streams on Spotify. They also co-founded Kabuan artist management company.
