Sheridan Voysey

Friendship Lab

The word's first non-profit empowering adults to make their friendships thrive.

Year Founded: 2024

Venture HQ: Oxford, UK

Venture Bio:

We envision a day when every person has at least three ‘2am friends' - someone they can talk to, depend on, grow with, and enjoy; someone they can call at 2am when everything has gone wrong. We pursue this vision through evidence-based courses, inspiring media campaigns, and actionable research. (Nonprofit)

More Info:

  • Friendship is our most undervalued relationship and its neglect is causing a wellbeing crisis. People with close friends have lower levels of anxiety and depression, more meaning and happiness, even longer lifespans, but more than 20% of adults don’t have them. We have a solution to this problem.

  • In May 2023 we piloted an evidence-based friendship skills course in four countries, assessed by the University of Leicester. Participants not only saw their friendships transformed but their wellbeing increase. We will roll this course out in On Demand, Live Online and Small Group formats.

  • We are confident of seeing over 2200 participants in our On Demand and Live Online course formats alone in our first 2 years of operation, with 100 moving on to become Small Group facilitators, creating compounding impact. We will reach thousand more through our media projects.

  • Sheridan Voysey is an author, speaker and broadcaster. His 30-year career has focused on bringing faith-inspired insights on human flourishing to mainstream society through projects of national reach. He is a presenter of Pause for Thought on BBC Radio 2 (heard by 9 million people daily), author of nine books, writer for the global devotional Our Daily Bread, and speaks at events across the world.