At age 18, while enrolled in high school in Utah, Van begun a two-year development process building Reler around a problem he recognized early: a flawed social system leading to increasing amounts of isolation among our youth. In Utah’s SHARP student survey, about 1 in 4 high school students reported feeling isolated from others “often” or “always.”

Van knew a modern-day solution had to be built, but it had to be done fully focused around safety. From day one, Van begun studying the trust and safety systems used by major youth platforms, then pressure-tested the tools himself, including AI-based age verification, AI-based content moderation for user profiles, and various school-based verification mechanisms. It was integral for Reler to also be built with deliberate safeguards such as no private direct messaging, in-app safety reminders, and easy two-tap reporting that can quickly be reviewed by an in-house U.S. team, to enable students to discover new friends in a way parents can trust.