Why Gumme exists

I'm 34, I live in South Orange County, and I built this to solve a problem I couldn't solve for myself.

When my mom passed, I thought I'd be surrounded by people. I wasn't. The support I assumed would be there didn't really show up — and going through one of the hardest moments of my life without it made everything so much heavier. It forced me to see something I'd been avoiding: I hadn't built the kind of community you lean on when life breaks open.

That's the real problem. It isn't just that making friends as an adult is hard — it's that too many of us reach our lowest moments without a circle around us, and there's no simple way to build one before we need it.

For a long time I kept wishing for something small: a place where I could say “I feel like going for a walk” or “anyone want to play pickleball?” and someone nearby would see it and just… come. No pressure, no performance. People who like the same things, showing up — and over time, becoming people you can count on.

That's all Gumme is trying to be.

It's free, I don't have investors, and I'm not selling your data. I'm honestly not sure it'll even work — I'm just one person trying to fix something a lot of us are quietly living with, the way I wish someone had fixed it for me.

If it helps even a few people build a circle that shows up when it matters, that's enough.

— Kash, South Orange County