Former Hinge Execs Raise $8.5m For Rodeo Social App

Former Hinge executives Sam Levy and Tim MacGougan have raised $8.5 million in seed funding for Rodeo, a new app designed to convert social media scrolling into real-world meetups with friends and family. The round, announced March 3, 2026, was led by Foundry and included participation from 359 Capital and Oceans.

Levy (former COO) and MacGougan (former Chief Product Officer) left Hinge in 2022 after helping scale the dating app. Their new venture addresses a common frustration: saving a TikTok restaurant recommendation or group chat plan, only to forget it later. Rodeo extracts key details – addresses, reservation links, event tickets – from shared content and organizes them into a calendar-style interface for easy sharing and execution.

The app’s beta, which attracted 20,000 users, proved the concept. “People don’t just want visibility. They want engagement,” Levy told Forbes. Unlike dating or friendship apps focused on meeting new people, Rodeo targets existing relationships – helping users nurture connections through consistent, low-friction planning.

The funding will support product development, team growth, and scaling to 50,000 users following the announcement. The founders are exploring monetization but have no immediate revenue model. Potential paths include partnerships with platforms like Ticketmaster, OpenTable, or Resy (earning fees when users book through Rodeo) and a future freemium tier with premium features.