In the ever-evolving landscape of digital culture, one Bay Area entrepreneur is reimagining how fans explore and document their passions. Zehra Naqvi, a 26-year-old consumer investor turned startup founder, is launching Lore, a groundbreaking search platform designed to help obsessive fans dive deep into their favorite cultural phenomena.

Growing up during the Tumblr and Twitter era, Naqvi understands the magic of internet rabbit holes. She spent countless nights analyzing Marvel movie release dates and tracking One Direction’s every move, ultimately building a massive online following of 250,000 across platforms.

Lore isn’t just another tech product, it’s a love letter to fandom culture. The platform allows users to research, connect, and explore their interests through personalized knowledge graphs, fan theories, and cultural context. Unlike existing search tools, Lore is built specifically for passionate fans who want to go beyond surface-level information.

“We’re creating a space where obsession isn’t embarrassing, but sacred,” Naqvi explains. The platform provides monthly reports on user interests, surfaces fandom updates, and enables users to “zoom in on a single theory or zoom out and see how all your fandoms connect”.

With $1.1 million in pre-seed funding from Village Global and Precursor Ventures, Lore has already seen impressive early engagement. Their initial experiment attracted over 1,000 logins and nearly 24,000 searches, demonstrating a clear hunger for a more meaningful online research experience.

Naqvi believes the next evolution of social media will be quieter, more human, and centered on passion and memory. “Consumer AI doesn’t always have to be about shopping or productivity,” she argues. “There are more inventive, joy-first ways to apply technology”.

As Lore prepares to launch, it represents more than just a new startup, it’s a reimagining of how we explore, document, and celebrate our cultural obsessions in the digital age.