our story
We Should Be Friends is community initiative designed to help adults in their 20s and 30s make genuine friendships. We host thoughtfully curated events where meeting strangers and making friends can be easy, natural, and fun. Our events are welcoming, low-pressure environments where people can connect over a shared experience —- whether that’s making pottery together, cold plunging, or going for a walk along the seawall.
We Should Be Friends is committed to creating an inclusive community where people of all backgrounds, personalities, and life stages can come together, feel a sense of belonging, and form meaningful connections.
What is We Should Be Friends?
Where it all began
We Should Be Friends began like all of the best things do: by accident.
In October, 2021, Katrina Martin, an Ontario transplant who moved to Vancouver in 2017. shared a TikTok about her experience making friends in Vancouver. The video went viral, and Katrina received comments from hundreds of people sharing similar struggles about how hard it was to make friends in Vancouver and their heightened feelings of loneliness following the pandemic.
In response, Katrina offered to host a simple meetup at Kits Beach for anyone who wanted to hang out or make friends.
The turnout was unlike anything Martin ever expected. Over 100 people showed up to the first event, with hundreds of other people online asking when the next event would be.
So she kept going. The low-key park meetups continued to grow, with one meetup bringing out nearly 300 young adults.
Gradually, the park meetups got too big to manage, and Katrina transitioned We Should Be Friends into smaller, activity-based events such as intimate concerts with local artists, pottery building, still-life drawing, book swaps, pilates and yoga classes, dinner parties, games nights, and more.
In the summer of 2025, Katrina hosted her first ever We Should Be Friends multi-day camping trips to Tofino, BC — with great success.
Today, We Should Be Friends continues with the same mission it began with: to create welcoming, inclusive spaces where people can show up as themselves, connect easily, and build real friendships.
about the founder
Katrina Martin is a Vancouver-based multi-hyphenate dedicated to changing Vancouver’s reputation as a cold & lonely city.
Born in Elora, Ontario, Katrina moved to the west coast for university in 2017 and hasn’t looked back since. She considers We Should Be Friends her “passion project,” among many other jobs that fill her time.
Katrina spends much of her time brainstorming ways to foster real community, combat loneliness, and create a spirit of welcoming and openness in Vancouver. She dreams of expanding We Should Be Friends to new cities and hosting global trips with strangers.
She is deeply grateful to everyone who has supported We Should Be Friends and has helped it become what it is today.