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Candle

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Candle helps friends and couples grow closer daily in just 5 minutes.

Fall 2024Founded 20252 peopleSan Francisco, CA, USA
Generate ideas β†’
↻ Pivot / rename signal

This company has previously operated under β€œEncore”, β€œEncore AI Labs”, β€œEncore”, β€œCandle - Couple Games & Photos”. A rename frequently marks a pivot in positioning or product β€” useful raw material for variant ideas.

About

Most relationships, romantic or platonic, don’t end in one moment, they drift apart over time. Missed check-ins, surface-level conversations, busy lives, and routines replace real connection. Candle helps couples and friends stay close through 1-minute daily rituals that bring back presence, play, and curiosity. Candle gives couples and friends a daily, low-pressure game designed to create emotional momentum: the most essential, and often most neglected, ingredient in long-term connection. What started as a swipeable questions game has grown into a full platform and private space for your relationship: - Daily Prompts & Games: Thoughtful, funny, and unexpected questions, couple quizzes, audio and photo challenges that update and adapt monthly - Shared Canvas Widget: Leave notes, doodles, or drawings right on each other’s home screen - Now in beta: Date Ideas Swiping**: Get 60 curated date ideas based on your area (yes, even San Francisco :)), updated weekly. Swipe to match on what you both want to try. From pop-up events to hidden gems, it’s the easiest way to try something new together or even with friends or family! We’d love feedback here! - Streaks & Shared Progress β€” Build accountability and a shared rhythm - Adaptive Decks: Smarter, more relevant questions over time - Shared Photo Albums & Memories: Keep track of all your photos and logged memories

Founders Β· 2

Alex Ruber
Alex RuberCo-Founder and CEO
Apple

Co-founder, CEO @ Encore, building design-first consumer AI products that help people build better habits Ex iOS/Arch Engineer @ Apple Ex Flight Systems/Sequencing Engineer @ NASA JPL Non-technical hobbies: soccer, surfing, art, F1

Parth Chopra
Parth ChopraCo-Founder and CTO
GoogleTwitter

Co-founder & CTO of Encore - building for the future generation of consumer AI. Prior to this, worked on ads relevance & ranking @ Twitter, and architected changes to the sharing/permissions framework @ Asana. Hobbies: math, thrifting, discovering new music, 3B1B youtube videos, cutting hair

ConsumerArtificial IntelligenceConsumerAI

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