The Founder Story
I built this because I deleted everything.
HiBFF — Hi Brave Friends Forever
Brave takes courage. Courage builds confidence. Confidence builds character. And character is the foundation of friends forever.
I launched HiBFF twice before this version. Each time, I watched it drift toward something I wasn't proud of — AI companions, digital relationships, more reasons to stay on a screen. So I deleted it. The website. The AWS stack. The press campaign. Everything.
Then I spent over 100 hours a week building something I could actually stand behind.
HiBFF is built on a simple belief: the world changed after Covid, and an entire generation of teenagers lost the years when social confidence is supposed to form naturally. I want to give that back to them — not through more screen time, but through practice. Real challenges. Real growth. And ultimately, real human connection.
I know it works because I did it myself. Every single day, walking through London, I would stop a stranger and say something genuinely kind — then walk away without waiting for anything in return. It changed how I felt about myself. It changed how they started their day. That's what HiBFF is.
Robert Parson
Founder & CEO, HiBFF
The Mission
Hi, Brave Friends Forever.
HiBFF exists to help you need it less. It is a practice tool, not a replacement for real human connection. Every feature, every AvA, every challenge, every badge — all of it is designed to help teenagers feel more confident out there, with real people, doing real things.
The Person Behind It
About Robert
Robert Parson is the Founder and CEO of HiBFF. He has spent forty years building businesses across multiple countries — from the UK to continental Europe and beyond. HiBFF is his most personal build. Not because it is his most technically complex — though at 167,025 lines of code and 829 endpoints, it is — but because it is the first time he has built something he would have wanted to exist when he was young.
He launched HiBFF twice before this version. Each time he watched it drift toward something he was not proud of. The second time he deleted everything — the codebase, the AWS stack, the press campaign — and started again. Not because the technology failed. Because he looked at where the market was heading and realised he was building something that hurt teenagers rather than helped them.
The version you are looking at was built in 2,265 hours of focused work. It is self-funded and independent. No venture capital. No investor agenda. No pressure to maximise engagement at the expense of the teenagers using it.
Robert has filed three provisional patents with the USPTO covering the core HiBFF methodology, with a further six patents in preparation. He is relocating HiBFF’s operations to Grand Cayman, where HiBFF will operate as an exempted company — closer to its primary market, the United States, and structured for the long term.
He reads every email sent to HiBFF personally. If you have a question, reply to any HiBFF email. It goes to him.
Ready to start?
Your teenager's journey to real-world confidence begins with a single step.
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