I started SMS out of desperation, loneliness, and a yearning to do more with life.

My name is Liban (lee~ben), and I started this thing called Strangers Meeting Strangers, or SMS for short, because I was desperate, lonely, and yearning for more out of life.

I left Minnesota at 20 for the U.S. Air Force. Ten years later, after Utah, England, Korea, Japan, and Ohio, I came home a civilian, and for a while I felt like a stranger to myself.

So in 2022 I started inviting strangers to meet. No pitch, no sell, just people in the same room on purpose. Somewhere along the way I realized the strangers I was meeting had become my universal therapists.

31 events and 3,200+ strangers later, SMS has gathered people in 12 venues across Minneapolis: salons, town halls, parties, a three-part series at the Walker Art Center, and Talk to Me Day in Loring Park. In 2026, BETA.mn selected SMS to produce Twin Cities Startup Week.

And SMS hasn’t ended. It’s expanding so more people can take part, with an app that lets anyone host a gathering or join one nearby.

At SMS, everybody needs you.