Therealroots Avis 

Have no idea. Haven’t networked with them.

I wouldn't recommend joining the club. After being matched with various groups of women being much older then me 60+ (my preference was my age and younger ~45) I finally found a group with somewhat (pre-menopausal women) as they liked to mentioned it all the time, this is why I preferred to socialize with women my age or younger. I found the group to be fun so I finally signed up and paid a whooping fee of $280. After our scheduled meetings and series, no one decided to share their numbers (except one person) and was "busy" to meet at later times. Now its been 3 month since we've seen each other and no one is interested in meeting even for coffee. The club still trying to charge me $45 per month, however there is nothing else which they can offer.
They also don't have any social events or groups. It appears that they start some events and groups but quickly remove them from the schedule. They need to invest in a professional who can help them grow otherwise someone with AI knowledge will take over and create a much better business model.

A day before my signed dinner, the company canceled the event and moved the dinner to two months later. I will be out of town and cannot commit to the new timeline. They will not give me a refund and say that the deposit is non-refundable. It's not my fault that they changed the dates. This is irresponsible and unethical.

Bottom line, I think it was probably fun for the founders of RealRoots to pitch this incubator concept and get funding, but it seems to primarily be an AI driven automated mechanism with few humans behind the wheel and not enough scale (i.e., women signing up) to bring it to life.

The concept is great -- they match women in a group based on answers to a series of really good questions about yourself, and promise that they've carefully curated your group for a good fit. Unfortunately, they seem to lack the critical mass to do so... at least with older-skewing women. When I arrived at the Meet & Greet, there was a large table of about a dozen women. I was directed to another smaller table with a few other women. Our table had a tent card stating " 45+." So for all of those carefully crafted questions supposedly used by "Lisa," their AI matching wizard, to curate a group of good-fit friends, their true matching system seems to be... whoever signed up. The Meet & Greet was fine, a little disorganized (our leader didn't seem to have some info needed from them) with only 5 of us (a 6th arrived late).

While miffed about "45+" being the extent of our "carefully curated" group, the other women were overall pleasant and fun, and I decided to give it ago on the series. I also figured I could tap into their other membership benefits, like groups and clubs. Alas, only 4 signed up and they require 5 to make it a go. Hard when you start with only 6. Then they automatically put me an a new group on Saturday afternoons -- not the same thing as the Wednesday evening group I'd signed up for. They offered other dates in the coming months but at this point I was skeptical, figuring it'd just be another too-small "45+" group. Then, even after declining the Saturday group, I continued to receive automated reminders that they "almost" had enough women for the M&G to proceed (meaning they did not yet have 5 or 6 women).

By then, I'd also looked more closely at the other things membership offered, only to see "no clubs offered" in my market. I'm in Chicago, for god's sake! Nothing?

Their automated email had offered a refund when the first M&G didn't get enough series sign-ups to proceed, and I decided to take them up on that... but it took some follow-up on my end to get it. (You were told to reply to their automated "Info@ email, which replies stating that they will reply back within 3 days. Not good when I'm trying to confirm that I will not be at the event they seem to still have me slotted into.) Their reply (finally) said "we don't usually give refunds." But they did.

I hope they can get it together. It is a good concept. But it's not a "set and forget" business, and they clearly need more human involvement and critical thinking to fix the gaps.

So bad. It’s a complete scam. ::(((((

Unorganized. Youre better off not using a guide and doing it yourself. This is a scam.

Abysmal customer service from incompetent people who couldn't care less. Every single aspect of my experience with this company was a chaotic frustrating mess. Our guide was an absolute lunatic who arrived dressed like she was ready to work the streets. Over several haphazard weeks, she abandoned us and insulted us and embarrassed us. Her replacement was a woman with a cluster of personality disorders who shamed members of our group when we didn't want to "get vulnerable" with her. If I wanted to socialize with people like that, I'd go to a halfway house. Every event was a cluster f@ck. I was scammed out of a signup fee and it took four rounds of excruciatingly bad communication with an inept woman called Tara to get a refund. Their horrible app doesn't work for half the people who sign up. It's wildly overpriced. Avoid at all costs. You're better off making friends at a bus station.

Great idea with extremely poor execution. Communication was terrible from the beginning. I received conflicting information on time and location and when I emailed them to confirm, they took days to respond and ultimately gave me the wrong information. Half of my group were no shows, and the series effectively ended after 3 weeks because of this. Have spoken to a few guides who said they have similar issues with communication. Apparently the company relies a lot on AI. And it shows. It's actually a great case study for why mass adoption of AI will fail. This company is run by two women and a robot.

I paid the $25 to do the meet and greet in Oct. Met two people out of 13-16 women that was somewhat compatible. I was convinced by one of them to sign up just so we could do the group together. Most of the women did not sign up. We got to the 2nd official activity event and they had thrown two random people into the group. None of them showed, so we didn’t have enough people to continue. We were regrouped the next month, same thing.

The hosts are bad. They get no training. They ramble. No one gets enough time on 1 on 1 chats to even talk to people they want to talk with bc they assign people to you during the events. I’ve been almost every month since Oct to a m+g with an attempt at a 6session group. Every single one has failed mostly due to their piss poor execution of services. For some reason they skipped me for May and put me in a group for June.

To try and make up for their issues, they created a discord, that is dead. It was well over a week dead from everyone in the US that signed up to it. No one talking. When members were talking, most of it was complaining about the experience they paid for and didn’t quite receive. RR have also tried updating their app, doing clubs, and doing “graduate” 1 on 1s where they choose you with other people you haven’t met in your city. I’ve attempted three 1 on 1s I have chatted with two of them. No one would put the effort in to meet up. The third didn’t respond at all. Also the first two people I met at the beginning. No longer in contact, so really, this has just been a huge waste of time, energy, effort, and only adds to the disappointment that I’ve been scammed out of $315.

On top of all of that this fee only covers access to events. Most of these meet ups are at bars or restaurants or places that require you to pay to experience, so you have to pay that. Real Roots only pays for appetizers and drinks on occasion, the rest is on you. If you have dietary restrictions like I do, makes it pretty pointless bc even with those “gratis” offerings, I usually can’t take advantage of it, anyway.

The sign up almost made me cancel immediately (and I should have) because after they took my money and guided me through the app, they put a big disclaimer up that they were going to share your private information with everyone in the group ( first last phone and email) and require you to take photos for promotional purposes. There was no way to opt out of this. I immediately contacted RR and told them I was not cool with that at all. If they want me to advertise, they can pay me for that service and that my private information is only shared with people of my choosing.

They apologized and told me I just needed to tell the host so they wouldn’t take photos of me. Every single group, there has been an issue with this bc they have shared my phone number without my permission.One host made a group text chat in which I immediately shut it down bc privacy issues.

If I could get a chargeback with my credit card I would, but they are banking on you not to do that which is why they keep offering rematches etc bc they really want to keep your money. If you wait too long you can’t even get a chargeback. They only do meet ups once a month, so you do not have much time before the chargeback deadlines are lapsed with most credit cards. I don’t recommend this is you want deep close connections with people. This is for social hour shallow acquaintanceships at best, pretty much for people who like to drink bc bars seem to be the majority of the events in my city. So, if you don’t drink, then it isn’t going to be your vibe.

I attended three Real Roots meet-and-greets before signing up for the six-week program. Many of the women were kind and interesting, and I appreciated the intention behind creating spaces for women to connect. However, overall the experience was not a fit for me personally.

Most of the meet-and-greets took place in very noisy pubs, which made meaningful conversation difficult. The six-week group was also formed by combining women from several different groups because there apparently weren’t enough sign-ups from the original groups. As a result, I didn’t feel there was much cohesion or shared interests within the group.

For me, the biggest challenge was the facilitation. I have a background in facilitation and group dynamics, so I’m perhaps more sensitive to this than some people. I found the facilitators often asked good opening questions, but then spent a significant amount of time talking about themselves rather than drawing group members out and helping conversations develop naturally between participants. I did provide this feedback directly to Real Roots and suggested they offer facilitator training, but unfortunately I never received a response.

The activities themselves were mixed. One evening involved going to an arcade where many of the machines weren’t working and the group energy felt flat. Another evening — mini golf followed by dinner and another evening dinner & karaoke. I don't know how many options for activities were explored or whether they do the same things for each group. I felt a lack of sizzle with the activities.

Another issue was with the 1-on-1 meetup component of the program. Participants are supposed to be paired with different members of the group for individual meetups outside the main gatherings, but there were repeated pairing mistakes and some people were paired more than once. When this was brought to their attention, we were suddenly given five additional 1-on-1 meetings to try to complete before the final gathering, which felt rushed and poorly organized.

I think Real Roots could be a good fit for some people, especially those simply looking to get out socially and meet new women. For me personally, I was looking for deeper connection, stronger facilitation, and more alignment in interests and energy within the group. At this point, I’m not sure I’ll continue with my group after the program ends or whether I would recommend Real Roots to others.

Does not offer experience or support advertised. Does not thoughtfully match. The meet and greet was great but only 3 of the 14 women signed up. The true group was 11 people vs 6-8 promised. We were barely introduced then told to pair ourselves for chats. The guide was not interested in facilitating. She was 15-30 min late to 3/6 sessions. Would read the agenda our, talk about herself then leave everyone to do there own thing. Often scrolling on her phone. Addresses were wrong, told we had reservations at places that don't even take reservations. The help line takes 5-7 days to respond to emails abd often just said sorry hope it went well without addressing anything.

I joined Real Roots because I wanted to meet new people who aligned more with my lifestyle and values. I’m health-conscious, active, don’t drink alcohol, and I’m more interested in meaningful connection, spirituality, personal growth, and healthy friendships. Many of my longtime friends are married with children now, so I thought this would be a good way to build a new social circle.

Unfortunately, my experience was extremely disappointing.

The groups felt very mismatched for me. A lot of the conversations centered around trauma dumping and trauma bonding, which is not the type of environment I’m personally looking for. I believe healing is important, but I’m more interested in building healthy, uplifting connections through shared interests, activities, and positive experiences. That wasn’t the vibe I experienced at all.

The events themselves were also poorly organized. One location was so loud that it was difficult to even hear people talk, which defeats the purpose of trying to connect. The directions to the first meetup location were confusing as well.

I was also disappointed by the advertising. The company promotes a “love it or your money back” guarantee, but when I requested a refund twice, I did not receive one. I agreed to try a second group, hoping it would be a better fit, but it felt even more mismatched for me, and I ended up not attending the second event.

Another thing to be aware of: the fee only covers the coordinator organizing the meetup. You still have to pay separately for your own drinks and dinner, so the cost adds up quickly for what is essentially a hosted social meetup.

Overall, this experience was not worth the money for me. I would honestly recommend saving your money and instead using platforms like Eventbrite to find activities and communities that genuinely match your interests. At least there you can choose events based on hobbies, wellness, spirituality, hiking, fitness, art, or other activities you actually enjoy.

Very disappointing. They claim to build new relationships through meaningful conversations but every restaurant was incredibly noisy and it was impossible to hear anything anyone said.
They ask if you have any disabilities upfront and I disclosed mine but nothing was done to accommodate me and the leader seemed to find my frustration annoying.
I emailed them and asked for a refund and was promised a reply in 3 days. It’s been a week and nothing.
Save your money.

I signed up for Real Roots back in early February. I was super excited because I haven’t had friends to interact with since I was hospitalized for half a year, changing my graduation etc. I saw reviews and no one said it was a scam, so I did the test and was set for a group in Late February. Literally 28 hours before the event- it was canceled and moved to APRIL. I was fine with it at first, but then the date comes (Today), and another email, moving it out to LATE MAY, once again 28 hours before the event. Maybe it’s my fault for having high hopes, but I’m tired of waiting for this “pairing” only to be “moved” out over a month later. I’m super disappointed, so if anyone wants to meet people soon, don’t use real roots. (This is in the San Diego area)

Shady company. I signed up a few months ago and paid $25. They told me the day before the event that it changed, and keep pushing potential meeting dates out several weeks, so I asked for my money back. They refused. I think it’s a wizard of oz situation where they collect $25 and no real humans are actually meeting.

The concept is solid. The execution is not ready.

I signed up for an Upper Manhattan Meet and Greet and received the venue address less than 24 hours before the nighttime event. The location was not somewhere I feel comfortable walking alone at night (they straight up sent a bunch of women to the middle of the hood at night). For a service built around women showing up solo to meet strangers, that is a significant problem. Women need enough notice to actually evaluate whether a venue is safe.

I requested a cancellation, was rescheduled without being asked, to a date that conflicted with a religious holiday. I was then told I was fully canceled. I was not. I was added to a new group chat, kept getting app notifications, and had no way to remove myself through the app. The only button available was reschedule, and the groups shown were categories I never selected.

I sent multiple follow-up emails. Each one hit a 2-3 business day auto-response. By the time anyone acknowledged the issue, the event was already starting and I was still in the chat.

The last thing: the email explaining why I was matched with my Lower Manhattan group was word for word identical to the one I received for the Upper Manhattan group. If intentional matching is your whole pitch, copy-pasting the rationale is not a good look.

Fix the venue selection process, fix cancellations, and fix the matching messaging. The foundation is there. The systems are not.

RealRoots is a nice concept, but the execution feels unpolished. When you sign up, you are enrolled in a seven-week series with a designated host. The overall experience varies significantly depending on the host, so consistency is not guaranteed.

Some events are partially covered, but you should expect to pay additional costs beyond the initial fee. Ultimately, you are paying for someone to plan weekly events for you.

The experience also depends heavily on the people in your group. You might get lucky with a great mix, or you might not.

Would I do it again? No.
Am I glad I tried it once? Moderately.

Beware: that automatically charge you a $99 annual membership fee and make it impossible to login to your account to cancel and they do not respond to customer service emails.