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About
A win, win, win.
What does free travel, a more authentic experience, and friends for life actually cost? A little awkwardness. Some small talk. A life story or two over breakfast.
People told us that's too much. That no one could endure such an atrocity. That people would rather drop thousands on an Airbnb, with no clue what's worth seeing, and fly home having met no one. We disagree. It's a small price to pay. In fact, it's no price at all.
the founding team
Hi, we’re Nate and Wilson.
We've been best friends since we were kids. One of us has spent years as a nomad, working in startups and wishing for more community along the way. The other is a therapist who spends his days helping people find connection. Adopted Adults is what happened when we put those two things together.
Nate Truniger
Founder & CEO
Nate has spent a decade building brands for startups, and a couple of those years living as a nomad on the road. Somewhere out there he got hooked on one idea: the best trips are the ones where someone local takes you in. This is the app he wishes he'd had. He lives in the Northwoods with his wife Shayna.
Wilson Kuhn
Co-founder · Therapist
Wilson is a therapist who spends his days helping people find connection, and he's watched how much people light up around it and how little of it a screen can fake. He's the one who keeps us honest about what we're really up against: people are lonelier than ever, and no app fixes that, but a friend across the world might just help.
what we believe
A few things we’d bet the company on.
Adopting is the best part.
There's a particular thrill in handing someone your whole world: the taco spot only locals know, the hike with the view, the dinner that runs past midnight. You're not renting out a room, you're showing off a place you love to someone who's thrilled to see it. Done right, the person who opens the door has the most fun of anyone.
You shouldn't have to choose.
Everywhere else, the cheap trip is the worse trip. The trip worth taking costs a fortune. And making friends as an adult is just hard. Those three are supposed to trade off against each other. We refuse the trade. Free travel, a more authentic trip, and friends for life, all at once. Not win-lose. Win, win, win.
Geography shouldn't pick your friends.
You make friends in school, then college, then life hands you a calendar and nobody to fill it with. The people who'd get you are out there. They're just never in your zip code. Letting geography decide who you know is a strange way to live in 2026.
It comes back around.
Take a few people in and, weirdly, you end up with a place to stay and a local to show you around in places you've never been. Nobody keeps a tally. It just evens out, and then some.
A trip should leave you with people.
You book a flight, check into a hotel, eat dinner alone, and fly home. You saw the place and met no one. The best part of anywhere is the person who lives there and wanted you to come. Photos fade. The friend in Lisbon who still texts you doesn't.
Loneliness is the quiet epidemic.
Half of adults say they're lonely, and it's worse for the young. The phones, the feeds, the group chats all worked exactly as designed, and people are lonelier than ever. The more we talk to machines, the more we ache to talk to a person. We're a friend-making app wearing a travel app's clothes, on purpose.
Hospitality is never for sale.
Nobody has ever told a friend “come visit, that'll be $100 a night.” The moment money touches the bed, it stops being friendship and becomes a booking. The stay is free, always, and that's the permanent promise. Tax the hospitality and you kill the only thing that made it special.
Safety is the whole company.
We're asking people to open their doors, and others to walk through them. None of that works without trust, so safety isn't a feature we bolted on. It's the thing we build everything else around. Every member is verified, every stay starts with a required video call, reviews can't be gamed, and it's one strike if you break it.
See how we keep you safe →Everyone adopts, so everyone visits.
That's the whole engine. The person hosting wins, the guest wins, and the friendship wins. Make a friend in Lisbon, another in Kyoto, and the world quietly turns into a place where you always know someone. Free travel, everywhere, for the price of being a good adopter.
Only the best hosts.
We are a bit picky with who we accept. This is the most rewarding, affordable way to travel, and we only want the greatest hosts in the world. Everyone must follow our golden rule: host how you want to be hosted.
Gimme a shot