Alex Hofmann

Chairman, CEO & Co-Founder

2018

2019-2025: CEO 2025 - Present: Chairman For the past six years, I’ve been leading 9count, a consumer app company focused on helping people connect and build meaningful relationships. From 9count, we created three growing, profitable companies: • GirlGroup – a community for women • Lex – a network for the LGBTQ+ community • Wink – an AI-powered social app Together, our products have reached over 50 million downloads and were recognized by The Information as one of the world’s most promising startups. We’ve raised $30 million from top investors including Hans Tung (GGV Capital) and Dana Settle’s firm, Greycroft. It’s been an incredible journey building products that help people feel less alone.

Investor

2025

Board Member

2025

Fast-growing LGBTQ+ social app fostering community, expression, and connection. After acquiring the platform, I led its spinout and evolution into a vibrant, standalone company with a bold vision for queer digital spaces.

Investor and Member of Advisory Board

2023

Investor. girlgroup is the place for girls' girls to find their community. Making friends as an adult is hard, we want to change that. Members can use the app to find ...

Founding Partner

2020

Progression Fund is a pre-seed and seed stage consumer focused fund founded by musical.ly and Tik Tok alumni.

Investor and Member of Advisory Board

2024 - 2025

Bond is building the decentralized, open-source alternative to Facebook. If Bluesky is decentralized Twitter, Bond is decentralized Facebook—the future of social networks.

Investor

2025 - 2025

Mozi is a private social network that helps you know where your people are and where they’re going to be, so you can see them soon(er).

Investor and Member of Advisory Board

2021 - 2024

spark human potential by bringing the transformative power of visualization and role-play into our everyday lives, fostering authentic, meaningful connections and personal growth in every individual's journey.

Member of the Board of Advisors

2018 - 2022

Collab is a digital content studio & video creator development company building a new studio model. We believe creatively entertaining people around the world ...

Chief Executive Officer

2015 - 2018

As CEO of Musical.ly Inc. in the U.S., I spearheaded the platform’s expansion across Europe and North and South America, transforming it into the world’s fastest-growing entertainment social network. In my role, I oversaw all regional operations and led global initiatives in marketing, licensing, content, brand development, and partnerships with creators, musicians, and entertainment entities. Under my leadership, musical.ly achieved over 200 million users worldwide before its acquisition by ByteDance and subsequent rebrand to TikTok.