Xirkl was invented by Anneke DiPietro, a 15 year-old junior at Stanford Online High School who had grown frustrated by her social media options and decided to create something better. She imagined a safe, private social network that met the needs of its users, not its advertisers. Xirkl (pronounced "circle") is built upon the simple notion that everyone deserves a safe and meaningful social media experience without being overwhelmed by advertisements and annoying spam. To prove there would be a market for such a social network, Anneke ran a successful Kickstarter campaign that received contributions from all over the world. You can see her Kickstarter video here.

She is currently working with Xirkl's development team to design and build Xirkl's beta release platform, due in the spring of 2016.