Editor's note: This year we honored some of the brightest young minds in the Bay Area innovation sector as part of our Inno Under 25 feature. Check out all the profiles from this year's honorees here.
Facebook launched at Harvard nearly 20 years ago and quickly laid the groundwork for what we now experience as social media. One of its defining aspects is a personalized, algorithmic feed of content for users. Whether called a “news feed” or, in TikTok parlance, a “For You” page, it’s designed to keep people engaged and scrolling, for better or worse. Jolene Huey and Kevin Gillespie want to create a new type of experience that eschews so-called doom scrolling and limits the reach of problematic content, while still delivering the experiences that users want to see. The result is Gravity Platforms, a new video-centric social media company that will be called Gravidy when it launches later this year. And they’re building it as undergraduate business students at U.C. Berkeley.
Jolene Huey
- Age: 20
- Residence: Berkeley
- Education: U.C. Berkeley/Haas Business School
- Role: Chief operating officer
Kevin Gillespie
- Age: 20
- Residence: Berkeley
- Education: U.C. Berkeley
- Role: CEO
- Company: Gravity Platforms
- Funding: $5,000
What have been the biggest challenges you’ve faced while going to school full time and trying to start a business?
Kevin: I think it’s one of the greatest experiences. A lot of it has been defined by learning things and being able to apply them immediately. There is a time constraint there, but I work quickly and dedicate a lot of time to both.
Jolene: It’s very exciting. The people that we’ve been able to meet who are also contributing to this project are mostly university students, so having consideration for working with other people who are also extremely busy with school is very important. And being able to balance that.
Sometimes people drop out of college to start businesses. Do you both intend to graduate?
Kevin: Oh, yes. I would be sad not to.
Jolene: Yes.
What are your thoughts on potential national regulations around data privacy and algorithms?
Jolene: That’s a great thing in terms of users or consumers — and it aligns with our values — and making sure things are transparent for them. In terms of the market, that would open up the market a little bit for people who are actually adhering to those standards at a higher level or more transparently.
Other than Gravidy, which other social media platforms do you find yourselves using the most?
Kevin: I would just say YouTube at this point in my life.
Not TikTok?
Kevin: No, we tried that. Same with Instagram. I think Instagram especially has changed so much.
Jolene: Yeah, YouTube for me, too. I like being able to change the speed of the videos.
So, right now it’s really just YouTube and that’s it?
Kevin: Yeah, and I think that’s really stemming from the same realizations. Like, we can’t be putting so much time into building an alternative and not avoiding the problems ourselves. We’re living along the same lines that we hope to enable for everyone
