Mehedi Hassan
In short: Mehedi Hassan is a co-founder of Sonder, a London-based connections and dating app built around expressive, collage-style profiles and in-person events. He also works as a product engineer at Granola, a London AI note-taking company. He matters to the dating industry because Sonder deliberately avoids AI-generated profiles while using AI to suggest matches.
Key facts
| Role | Co-founder, Sonder |
|---|---|
| Organisation | Sonder |
| Based in | United Kingdom |
| Website | builtbymeh.com |
| Role | Co-founder of Sonder, with Helen Sun, Lenard Pratt and Hannah Kin [TechCrunch, 1 April 2026] |
| Current employer | Product engineer at Granola, a London-based AI note-taking app [TechCrunch, 1 April 2026] |
| Previous employers | Qualcomm, Circle and Causaly [AI Engineer] |
| Sonder users and funding | About 6,500 users in London with no paid marketing; no funding raised; founders work part-time [TechCrunch, 1 April 2026] |
| Sonder origin | Described as the brainchild of university friends Mehedi Hassan and Lenard Pratt; Helen Sun and Hannah Kin joined later; app launched summer 2025 [Artefact, 13 May 2026] |
| Position on AI | Sonder uses a language model to suggest matches; Hassan refuses to add AI profile-generation tools [Yahoo Tech (TechCrunch syndication), 1 April 2026] |
| Location | London [Personal site] |
Biography
Mehedi Hassan is a London-based product engineer and a co-founder of Sonder, a connections app that began as a dating product and now also offers a friends mode. According to TechCrunch, he founded it with Helen Sun, Lenard Pratt and Hannah Kin. Artefact Magazine describes Sonder as the idea of two university friends, Hassan and Pratt, with Sun and Kin joining the team later. That report says the app launched in summer 2025.
Sonder asks users to build collage-like profiles with photos, text, drawings and links to music or films, rather than answering standard prompts. TechCrunch reported that the app had about 6,500 users in London, gained without paid marketing. It also reported that Sonder had not raised funding and that the founders worked on it part-time alongside their day jobs. Hassan said he hoped it could become a full-time job and stay in London.
Hassan's day job is in product engineering at Granola, a London AI note-taking app. His personal site and a conference biography say he previously worked at Qualcomm, Circle and Causaly. On Sonder, he has said the app uses a language model to suggest matches, but he opposes AI tools that write profiles for users. He argues that the effort of making a profile signals real interest in other people.
Also mentioned in
Questions about Mehedi Hassan
Who is Mehedi Hassan?
Mehedi Hassan is a co-founder of Sonder, a London-based connections and dating app built around expressive, collage-style profiles and in-person events. He also works as a product engineer at Granola, a London AI note-taking company.
What is Mehedi Hassan's current role?
Mehedi Hassan is Co-founder, Sonder at Sonder.
Also known as: Mehedi Hassan (Sonder).