Dialogue Vanderbilt hosted Teddy Solomon, CEO of the social media app Fizz, Feb. 3 for the inaugural event of the “250 Conversations on America: Civil Discourse in Action” initiative. The initiative strives to promote intellectual engagement across differences while commemorating the United States’ 250th anniversary in 2026.
In an interview with The Hustler, Solomon expressed his excitement to interact with the Vanderbilt community, noting that it’s rare he gets the opportunity to speak with students. He said his appreciation for Vanderbilt also comes from the school being one of the first to introduce Fizz on a college campus.
“Usually, I’m speaking to the tech community or the influencer community or whoever it might be. Now, I’m at a school where almost everybody uses our app,” Solomon said. “I’ve spoken at colleges before, but Vanderbilt was one of the earliest schools that we launched, and I’m very blessed to be back here, and it’s a very full circle moment.”
The moderators, senior Katie Tully and first-year Charlie Siegel, first asked Solomon about the backstory behind creating Fizz. He noted the struggles he faced starting college at Stanford University during the COVID-19 pandemic while living in Arizona, explaining how there was a lack of opportunities to connect with other students on other online platforms.
“We didn’t know what was going on at our school, so [my co-founder and I] built Fizz just as a side project as something for our friends,” Solomon said. “[We] eventually launched it on Stanford’s campus after our freshman year, and by dinnertime, all of Stanford was on [the platform].”
Tully and Siegel then asked Solomon about his reasoning for establishing Fizz as a fully anonymous platform. Solomon attributed the decision to the current state of social media culture, which he believes discourages authenticity.
“When I arrived at Stanford, I was in a 1,200-person group chat with people who have grown up on social media where the expectation is [that] you’re going to present the most perfect version of yourself. If you can’t do that, then don’t say anything at all,” Solomon said. “And that’s why in that 1,200-person group chat, literally nobody would speak. And what we’ve done is that we’ve given people the ability to speak. It does not matter what your role is with respect to campus; you can speak your mind.”
Solomon believes that Fizz is the last social media platform that exists for the younger generation, asserting that platforms such as Instagram and TikTok have evolved into entertainment media instead of social media. He emphasized that a significantly larger share of members actively post on Fizz when compared to other users on most social media platforms.
“Most legacy social platforms abide by the 1-9-90 rule. 1% post, 9% comment and 90% lurk” Solomon said. “On Fizz, 35% of our users are creating posts, which is completely unheard of, but it truly is the democratization of content, the democratization of information and a meaningful platform through and through.”
The conversation then shifted, and Solomon shared his thoughts on the future of social media platforms.
“I believe the future of social media is that it is community, it is intimacy, it is privacy, it is authenticity,” Solomon said. “And if you do that right, you have something very, very powerful.”
As for the future of Fizz, Solomon is looking to expand with his next project, Global Fizz, a platform that would allow students from different schools to interact with one another. Solomon said he hopes the platform will eventually expand beyond college settings altogether while preserving Fizz’s core principle as an intimate and experience-centered platform, as opposed to being interest or entertainment-driven. Global Fizz has been tested in select campuses across the country, and Solomon expects Global Fizz to be introduced to Vanderbilt this year.
“Global Fizz was a big step because once you bring everybody together, and location and identity are big components to [the platform], then you can translate that to the real world,” Solomon said. “If you want to share an experience with other people who mean something to you, something hyper-local and something community-based, then you use Fizz for that.”
First-year Katelyn Tan expressed newfound appreciation for Fizz after the discussion of the current social media landscape during the event.
“[Although] usually people talk about social media as something that takes away the social part in life, Fizz actually builds a community,” Tan said. “What stood out to me is how they differentiate themselves from other social media platforms where it’s similar, but you don’t find that local community.
