Our Founder
Maxine Simone Williams is the owner and founder of We Met IRL. Her first event was in February of 2022 and since going viral on TikTok, she’s received lots of attention online, and success. Maxine was inspired to create We Met IRL after being frustrated with online dating apps, which seemed to be the only option to meet people in the midst of the pandemic.
She also attended a speed dating event and realized that there weren’t any events with the intention of reaching people from diverse backgrounds. Outside of running the business, Maxine is a digital news producer. She enjoys reading, gardening, and spending time with family and friends in her spare time.
Our MISSION
We Met IRL is a relationship building organization that hosts speed dating events, mixers, and social gatherings, with diversity in mind. Our mission is to create environments that encourage romantic or platonic connections offline, and we do this by facilitating safe spaces for meaningful conversations, social interactions, and good times! Because of the isolation imposed by the pandemic, more and more people expressed their wish to meet people in real life. WMIRL is a response to this!