About Acorn Social
Built by people who care about helping communities form and last in real life.
Acorn Social is focused on making it easier for people to discover shared interests, organize events, and build durable local friendships instead of shallow online-only connection.
Contact: acornsocial.dev@gmail.com
Boyang Zhang
Boyang Zhang is an engineer who enjoys building ideas with positive societal impact. He has hosted more than 30 large-group social events in the Ann Arbor area and brings both product intuition and software experience to Acorn Social.
Kevin Calopisis
Kevin Calopisis is a software developer and University of Michigan data science student. He has interned at Amazon, worked directly on user-facing product delivery, and brings strong experience in customer-focused engineering and teaching.
Rafe Symonds
Rafe Symonds is a computer science and engineering student at the University of Michigan. He has worked on backend systems and critical software features at Charles Schwab and TechSmith, and he also teaches game development to help students build creative technical projects.
Sophie Lin
Sophie Lin knows firsthand how online platforms can lead to genuine real-life friendship. Her experience building and moderating large communities informs Acorn Social’s approach to community design, event participation, and sustainable member engagement.
Robert Dick
Robert Dick advises Acorn Social on entrepreneurship, AI/ML systems, and algorithm design. He is a University of Michigan professor and IEEE Fellow whose technologies have seen major commercial success, including work connected to Stryd and other mass-market systems.