“Bookups” Becomes “TalkTheTalk”

In the beginning, “Bookups” was — as the name suggests — about books. And while we remain indebted to the initial idea which put us on this path, we learned that the needs of people go far beyond it. We realized our startup could be much more than initially thought, and benefit people in ways we hadn’t imagined. And so we opened it up to any and every topic that might be of interest, ranging from books and movies to news items and personal problems.

We wanted TalkTheTalk to be a means of addressing issues related to humanity, not just the intellect; issues which could benefit from real, face-to-face discussions — such as identity, anxiety, isolation, exclusion, vulnerability, loneliness — and which are common to us all.

Our new name — TalkTheTalk — and logo hopefully reflect our newly found direction: we aimed for bolder, wilder, braver, stronger, more challenging, more empowering. But perhaps our vision of things and our ultimate goals are better explained below:

Mission Statement

Our goal is to offer people the opportunity to use face-to-face conversations as a means of reconnecting to others around them and themselves. This stems from our belief that real, insightful conversation has the power to move the world forward and reconnect us to our humanity, just as it has done for thousands of years of human evolution.

We started TalkTheTalk because, even if we are a couple of misfits, we believe our needs are shared by many other people across cultures: the need to communicate on a deep personal level; the need for genuine human connection; the need to be understood. They are intrinsic of human nature and should not be neglected or suppressed. For us, the best solution were face-to-face conversations in a safe and inclusive environment.

The platform we built under TalkTheTalk is our way of giving back to others what has already worked for us, and hope it can provide those in need with one of the best things a human being can experience: freedom. Freedom to be yourself, to discover, to express, to feel vulnerable or curious, to talk, to listen, to find your voice, to let your guard down, to be kind and tolerant, to be human.

Ruxandra & Radu

Co-founders