Kareem El has spent his life bridging worlds — from The Nation’s Capital to the suburbs of Ohio — from the Marine Corps to Okinawa’s underground — always finding connection in unexpected ways.

Raised between Washington, DC’s Pan-Africanist community and a mostly white suburb outside Cleveland, Kareem grew up navigating contrast. From a village of “mamas” and “babas” in Chocolate City to the quiet tension of a former sundown town, he learned early that connection is possible anywhere when you show up with openness.

That lesson carried him through the U.S. military, where he took an unlikely path from HBCU student to Marine Corps officer. Stationed in Okinawa, Japan, he found belonging — not on base, but in an underground scene of skaters, chefs, tattoo artists, and musicians. His skateboard was the beacon — the signal that helped his community find him.

When he returned to the U.S. just before the pandemic, the culture shock was intense. The world would soon shut down but even before that, Kareem noticed that “in real life” was being replaced by “going live”. Having an online presence was already becoming more important than curating an IRL community. COVID was just the nail in the coffin.

The spark for 4RL came in 2021, while delivering a speech to a group of donors at the Plaza Hotel in NYC. The world was just reopening. The audience was peppered with billionaires and cultural giants but no one seemed focused on status or power that night. Everyone was simply happy to be seen and to see each other. Outside those walls, Kareem realized there were countless people who would do anything to get an audience with some of the legends in that room but they would likely never get the chance - even though in that moment, these larger than life people seemed eager to share a moment with a stranger.

That’s when it clicked: everyone is accessible sometimes — you just don’t always know when. He began asking the question “what if” - what if there was a way to signal when you’re open to a connection IRL - what if there was a way to search for your community using those signals - just like he had inadvertently done with his skateboard back in Okinawa.

4RL is the answer to those questions. A social toolkit built from a lifetime of adapting, decoding, and dropping in. More than just an app, 4RL is a movement — a shift in community consciousness. Whether you’re new in town, passing through, or just looking to engage in the moment, 4RL is a new way of thinking about the world around you and the fortune you can find through connection.