meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Equity

Fizz CEO on why anonymous social is winning with Gen Z

Equity

TechCrunch

News, Business, Entrepreneurship, Business News, Technology

4.2372 Ratings

🗓️ 31 December 2025

⏱️ 32 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Fizz is betting that Gen Z is tired of performing their lives on Instagram and TikTok.   What started as a pandemic-era group chat frustration has turned into the dominant social platform on college campuses across the US, focused on the 99% of life that doesn't make it into a highlight reel. Capturing the attention of a demographic typically glued to Instagram and TikTok, the app's hybrid anonymous model and hyperlocal focus has made it what Solomon calls "the biggest college social app since Facebook.”   Today we're bringing you a conversation that Dominic Madori Davis had with Fizz’s co-founder and CEO Teddy Solomon from this year's Disrupt, digging into why he thinks social media stopped being social.   Listen to the full episode to hear:  Why Solomon thinks Instagram and TikTok became pure entertainment platforms, and why that created an opening  How Fizz uses 7,000 volunteer student moderators plus AI to keep the platform safe  The company's expansion strategy beyond college and what "Global Fizz" actually means  Solomon’s case for why New York is a better place to build a consumer company than San Francisco  Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.     Chapters:   00:00 - Introduction   01:34 - What broke in social media   04:03 - Building for the 99% of life   07:29 - Content moderation at scale   11:16 - The risks of anonymous social   13:22 - Pandemic origins and IRL community   16:49 - Why the company moved to New York   19:45 - Scaling with "arguably the most retentive social product in history"   21:32 - Almost getting arrested at Pepperdine…for donuts  26:09 - The future of social media  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Ready to ship AI that works, start building at MongoDB.com slash build.

0:05.6

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch's flagship podcast that's all about the business of

0:09.7

startups. This is the episode where we talk to industry experts about a tech world trend.

0:14.3

Today, we're going to be focusing on Fizz, a startup betting that Gen Z is tired of performing their

0:18.8

lives on Instagram and TikTok.

0:24.0

The app started on college campuses, but is now expanding beyond that.

0:26.6

The co-founder and CEO, Teddy Solomon, came to disrupt,

0:31.4

where he talked to Dominic Midori Davis about why I think social media stopped being social and why he moved his entire company from San Francisco to New York.

0:35.2

Let's take a listen.

0:42.6

Music from San Francisco to New York. Let's take a listen. Hello, Teddy.

0:43.4

Thank you so much for jumping on the podcast with us.

0:45.5

Yeah, thanks for having me.

0:47.0

Yeah.

0:47.6

Is this your first disrupt?

0:49.2

My first disrupt.

0:50.4

Yeah, I'm from San Francisco,

0:51.8

but I've never been to this before.

0:54.1

How are you liking it? I mean, I've only been here for about an Francisco, but I've never been to this before. How are you liking it?

0:55.2

I mean, I've only been here for about an hour.

0:56.8

Oh.

0:57.1

But it's been a great hour.

0:59.5

Been meeting a lot of like the volunteers and people all over the place, high energy.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from TechCrunch, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of TechCrunch and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.