the social app that made its privacy promise legally binding before it launched
Solsis, a Denver social app coming to iOS, has written two promises into its company charter: it can't show ads and it can't sell your data. Founder Jack Figueirinhas, a CU Boulder engineer, set the company up as a public benefit corporation to make the pledges binding. It lands the week a New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay $25bn for misleading Facebook users about privacy. Early access is open at solsis.io.
Solsis, a social app from Denver, has written two promises into its company charter before its iOS app has launched: it can't show ads and it can't sell your data. The company is a public benefit corporation, Solsis PBC, and says the pledges are "locked in the company charter and the culture."
Founder Jack Figueirinhas, a mechanical engineer who graduated from CU Boulder in 2023, makes the case in one line on the Solsis homepage: "The major social media apps have reached their 'ensh*ttification' points." The word was coined by the writer Cory Doctorow for platforms that get steadily worse for the people using them.
Solsis is built for the people you would rather see in person. Its Hang feature pulls everyone's free windows into one view, lets the group lock a time, and puts the plan in each person's calendar and feed.
Posts go only to the people who should see them, chosen by relationship type or one by one. A Meet feature shows who is around when you want to find new people, and the app carries no AI content, no bots, no catfish and no ads.
Solsis is coming soon to iOS, and early access is open now at solsis.io. University students can flag that when they join the list.
Trend context
On 21 October a New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay $25bn after a jury found more than 43 million violations of state consumer protection law, tied to misleading statements about privacy and content moderation; Meta plans to appeal. The same day Meta reported $63.06bn of third-quarter advertising revenue, and two days earlier Instagram head Adam Mosseri said banning AI content isn't practical (Social Media Today). With platforms now handing feed controls back to fed-up users (CNN, 22 October), Solsis has gone the other way: no ads, no AI content, and its two biggest promises in its charter rather than a privacy policy.
About Solsis
Why we exist
Social media was supposed to bring people together. The biggest apps now run on ads, fill up with bots and AI, and keep people scrolling alone. Solsis exists to bring back what matters: real connections, with real people, in real life. It is built for people who want to see their friends more often, and every feature points at getting them into the same room.
How we do it
Solsis is a public benefit corporation, and its two biggest promises sit in its charter: it can't show ads and it can't sell your data. No ads means no reason to harvest data. Plans happen inside the app: pick something to do, see everyone's free windows in one view, lock the time and it lands in everyone's calendar. Posts reach only the people you choose. Its rules ban AI content, bots and catfish, and its terms describe a platform built on real identities.
What we do
Solsis is a social app for iOS, coming soon, made by Solsis PBC of Denver, Colorado, founded by Jack Figueirinhas. Three features: Hang (plan real-world meetups around everyone's free time, with Going, Maybe and Can't replies and a locked calendar slot), Share (posts visible only to chosen people, by relationship type or one by one) and Meet (see who is around and find new people when you're ready). No ads, no AI content, no bots, no catfish. Users must be 18 or over. Early-access list at solsis.io, with a flag for university students.
Why it matters
If Solsis vanished at midnight, the people who would feel it are the ones whose friendships live in a group chat where "we should hang out" never becomes a date. The enemy is the ad-funded feed: an attention business that earns more the longer you stay on your phone, and now fills the gaps with bots and AI. In-person time with friends for 15- to 24-year-olds fell from about 150 minutes a day in 2003 to 40 in 2020 (US Surgeon General, 2023). Solsis is built to win that time back.
Who it's for
The university student with hundreds of followers and nobody to get pizza with on Friday. Their friends are all in the group chat, everyone is free "sometime next week", and nobody picks a night. They are tired of feeds full of strangers, ads and AI, and would rather see five real friends than perform for an audience. Solsis is for them first, and for anyone who wants their social life back off the screen.
Proof points
- 2 pledges written into the company charter: no ads, no selling user data (company statement, solsis.io)
- Registered in Delaware as a public benefit corporation, Solsis PBC (terms of service, updated 25 September 2026)
- Minimum age of 18, set in the terms of service
- 4 things banned under its rules: AI content, bots, catfish, ads (company policy, solsis.io)
Traction & credibility
- Incorporated as a public benefit corporation, Solsis PBC, with its no-ads and no-data-sale pledges in the charter (company)
- Brand, website and app UI by Front Yard of Los Angeles, which lists Solsis first in its featured work under the title "Reclaiming social media"
- Founder Jack Figueirinhas: BS Mechanical Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder (2023); previously an account manager at Silicon Valley Bank
- Early-access list open at solsis.io ahead of the iOS launch
Spokespeople
Jack Figueirinhas
Founder
Jack Figueirinhas is the founder of Solsis, a Denver social app for seeing friends in real life, set up as a public benefit corporation with no ads and no selling of user data written into its charter. A mechanical engineer, he graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2023 and worked as an account manager at Silicon Valley Bank before building Solsis. He drafted the first Solsis logo concept himself, and the name comes from his affinity for outer space.
Expertise
Consumer social apps; public benefit corporations and purpose-led governance; ad-free business models and user privacy; AI content, bots and fake accounts on social media; friendship, loneliness and in-person connection for young adults; engineering
Notability
BS Mechanical Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder (2023). Founded Solsis PBC, which has written no ads and no data sales into its charter before launch.
Talking points
The insight
the social app that made its privacy promise legally binding before it launched
The story
Solsis, a Denver social app coming to iOS, has put its two biggest promises in its company charter rather than its privacy policy: it can't show ads and it can't sell users' data. It is incorporated as a Delaware public benefit corporation, Solsis PBC, so its directors must weigh a stated public benefit alongside profit. Founder Jack Figueirinhas says the big social apps have reached their "ensh*ttification" points; his answer is to write the ad business out before launch, so the app's job stays getting friends into the same room.
Why it matters
Privacy promises on social media have a bad record. On 21 October a New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay $25bn after a jury found Facebook misled users about their privacy (Meta plans to appeal), and on 19 October Instagram's head said banning AI content isn't practical. Solsis tests the opposite model: take the ad business out at the root, in the company's legal paperwork, before launch.
Who does it impact
For founders and investors, it is a live test of whether a public benefit charter can hold a consumer app to its promises once growth and funding arrive. For privacy and tech-policy readers, it puts one question to every app: is the promise in the policy, or in the paperwork? For students and young adults tired of feeds full of strangers, ads and AI, it is a social app whose business doesn't depend on watching them.
Proof points
Solsis's own terms of service name the company as Solsis PBC, registered in Delaware. Its homepage sets out the pledges word for word ("We can't show ads." "We can't sell your data." "No take-backs.") and says they are "locked in the company charter and the culture." Delaware law requires a public benefit corporation's directors to balance stockholders' financial interests, the interests of people affected by the company, and the public benefit named in its charter. For scale, Meta reported $63.06bn of advertising revenue for the third quarter on 21 October, the business model Solsis has written out.
CTA
Readers can join the early-access list and read the founder's note and pledges at https://solsis.io. Journalists can interview founder Jack Figueirinhas in Denver or by video.
Key facts
- Company
- Solsis PBC, a public benefit corporation registered in Delaware, based in Denver
- Charter pledges
- Can't show ads; can't sell user data (company statement, solsis.io)
- Not on Solsis
- AI content, bots, catfish, ads; users must be 18 or over
- Meta Q3 2026 advertising revenue
- $63.06bn (reported 21 Oct 2026)
- Meta privacy penalty, New Mexico
- $25bn ordered 21 Oct 2026; Meta plans to appeal
Get in touch
Jack Figueirinhas
Founder
Drop me a note and I'll reply by email.