Four Weeks After Launching eYou: 60,000 Users, a Death Threat, and the Birth of a Movement

Four weeks ago, we launched eYou.

Since then, nearly 60,000 people have joined the platform completely organically. No paid ads. No influencers. No growth hacks. Close to zero marketing budget.

Just word of mouth, public conversations, media coverage, and people telling other people: “You should check this out.”

After nearly 20 years in entrepreneurship, I have learned that when something spreads organically at that speed, it usually means one thing: you might be touching a nerve. And that is exactly what is I think is happening with eYou.

But the last four weeks have also been among the most intense, exhausting, emotional, and paradoxical moments of my entrepreneurial journey.

Because alongside the encouragement, support, and enthusiasm, I have also received hate, attacks, conspiracy theories, and even a death threat.

Yes. A real death threat.

When you launch a social media platform in today’s polarized world, you quickly realize something: you are no longer simply building a tech product. You are stepping directly into the ideological battlefield of modern society. And whether you want it or not, people will project their fears, frustrations, anger, and political obsessions onto you.

Some have called us communists. Others have labeled us extremists. Some claimed eYou’s logo was inspired by Nazi symbolism. We have been accused of being spies, compared to North Korea, and even told that I was secretly working as a French intelligence agent.

And to make things even easier for some members of the far right, my business partner Jasseem Allybokus has an Arabian name, while I am French, we launched the company in Romania, and the company is registered in Croatia.

For certain people already obsessed with conspiracies and political narratives, this combination was apparently enough to trigger all kinds of fantasies.

But the reality is much simpler.

We are not politicians. We have never belonged to any political party. We are entrepreneurs. That is all. We are Europeans. Citizens of the world. Builders.

And we are simply trying to build what we believe social media should have become years ago: more responsible, more human, more transparent, and less toxic.

One of the main reasons we are being attacked comes from our fact-checking system. At eYou, if someone spreads blatant misinformation or conspiracy theories, the system flags it. If somebody claims the Earth is flat, the platform will say it is false. If somebody spreads fabricated information presented as fact, the system will react.

And apparently, for some people, that alone is enough to make us enemies.

Many of the people attacking us immediately assume that fact-checking automatically means political manipulation. Maybe because they have become so used to giant social media platforms being controlled by political or ideological agendas that they believe everybody must secretly have one too.

But we do not. We are not building eYou to push an ideology. We are building eYou because we genuinely believe social media can be healthier.

And despite the noise, despite the attacks, despite the hate, something much bigger is happening underneath. A community is forming. Not just a user base. A movement. This is probably the part that moves us the most emotionally.

Many of our users have already become true, active ambassadors of the platform. Not passive users. Not consumers. Builders. Believers. Supporters. People who deeply understand what we are trying to achieve.

And this changes everything.

Because when people stop interacting with a company transactionally and start emotionally connecting with its mission, values, and culture, something very powerful happens. It transcends the product itself.

This is something my business partner Jasseem Allybokus and I have always believed deeply: the strongest companies are not built like companies. They are built like movements. And movements cannot be bought with advertising budgets. They are fueled by values, alignment, meaning, and belonging.

That is exactly what we believe is emerging around eYou right now.

At the same time, we are also facing the brutal reality of building a social media company. And honestly, it is harder than we expected.

Building a social media platform at scale is an extraordinarily complex challenge. Infrastructure. Growth. Moderation. Technology. While security is a permanent obsession. Sometimes people see an app and think it is just about features, design, or code. It is not.

But as entrepreneurs, strangely enough, we love that challenge.

Because true entrepreneurship has never been about comfort. It has always been about crossing uncertainty with faith and conviction.

Right now, we genuinely feel like we are crossing what people in Silicon Valley famously call “the Death Valley.”

For those unfamiliar with the term, the Death Valley is the brutal phase where startups have already launched, have traction, have momentum, have users… but are still fragile financially and operationally. It is the dangerous moment where companies either break through or disappear forever.

And honestly, that is exactly where we are right now.

Sometimes it feels like we are crossing a massive desert with no water. And the only water we can rely on is the support of our users. That support is not symbolic anymore. It is existential. It is the difference between surviving and failing. Between scaling and disappearing.

Because unlike many platforms, we are not monetizing through aggressive advertising systems.

That is why we are now preparing our next fundraising round. But more importantly, we are seriously considering launching a crowdfunding campaign that would allow our own users to acquire part of the company.

And honestly, we cannot imagine a more coherent evolution for eYou.

Since day one, we have repeated the same thing: eYou was built for its users. Now we want to prove it with actions.

If our users are helping shape the platform, defend the platform, improve the platform, and grow the platform, then they should also be able to own part of it.

Because the future of social media should not belong to one man sitting alone in an ivory tower. It should belong to communities.

This is also why we are thinking about creating a user advisory board composed of some of our most active and constructive members. A small group of users we could meet with every quarter to discuss the future direction of the platform, receive feedback, challenge our decisions, and improve together.

We are also planning to organize hackathons around eYou. We want developers, designers, creators, students, entrepreneurs, and passionate builders to participate directly in shaping the ecosystem around the platform. Once again, the goal is simple: we do not want eYou to feel like a closed company built behind closed doors. We want it to feel alive, collaborative, and community-driven.

Because the truth is simple: we do not want to build eYou above people. We want to build it with them. And maybe this is ultimately the biggest difference between eYou and many traditional social media platforms.

Our company name itself says it all: eYou stands for Empowered You. Not empower the algorithm. Not empower advertisers. Not empower political agendas. Empower people. Our users.

Another aspect of this adventure that excites us enormously is how eYou is progressively moving beyond the digital world into real life.

Recently, we met with students from the Romanian-American University. A few days later, we drove more than three hours from Bucharest to Doinesti to meet with high school students and discuss technology, entrepreneurship, social media, and the future they want to build.

These conversations matter deeply to us. Because young people are not just “future users.” They are the future of eYou itself.

And if we truly want to build a healthier kind of social media, then we need to listen carefully to the younger generation instead of pretending we already have all the answers.

And of course, during the official launch event of eYou on May 5, although the event was primarily a press conference for journalists and influencers, we were already very happy to include some members of the community.

Because ultimately, these moments should not belong only to founders, investors, or media. They should belong to users too. And this is only the beginning.

In the future, we will create many more opportunities for our community to participate physically in this journey, meet each other, exchange ideas, challenge us, and help shape the future of eYou together.

At the same time, we also want to remain extremely humble about where we stand today. We know that eYou is far from perfect.

We are still a baby startup entering one of the most competitive and brutal industries in the world, dominated by gigantic global players with nearly unlimited resources. Sometimes it genuinely feels like a David versus Goliath story. Exciting, inspiring… but also fragile.

We honestly do not know what Facebook looked like four weeks after launch. Or X. But one thing is certain: they did not become what they are today overnight.

Years and years of iterations, mistakes, improvements, failures, feedback, and rebuilding shaped those platforms.

And we are only at the very beginning of that journey. That is why we ask our users to stay patient, to remain constructive, and to keep sharing feedback with us constantly.

Because we listen. Every suggestion. Every bug report. Every criticism. Every idea. We take all of it with humility. Because this journey is not only about technology anymore. It is about trust.

And trust can only be built through transparency, humility, and consistency over time.

Finally, we want to sincerely thank everybody who has supported us over these first four weeks. Everybody who downloaded the app. Everybody who posted about it. Everybody who challenged us. Everybody who criticized us constructively. Everybody who referred friends, family members, or colleagues.

Because the truth is simple: our ability to grow will determine whether eYou survives or disappears. Social media is not an industry where you can remain small forever.

As the saying goes: go big or go home.

If we fail to achieve critical mass, we will not be able to sustain the infrastructure, raise future funding rounds, and continue building at the speed required for this kind of platform.

Which means that today, more than ever, we rely on our community. Not only to help us survive. But to help us truly thrive.

One thing is certain: You do not receive this level of passion, support, criticism, emotion, and intensity unless you are building something big people truly care about.

And maybe, just maybe, that is the strongest signal of all.

Thank you.

Grég & Jass