THE SEATTLE TIMES – Apr 12 – Susie Lee, a Seattle-based visual artist turned tech entrepreneur, created Siren, a dating app designed to protect women from creepy messages from guys. The free app, allows women to peruse men's pictures and their answers to the "Question of the Day". If a woman is suitably impressed by a man's answers, she can make herself visible to him. Only then can he see what she looks like. The biggest hurdle Siren faces is getting enough money and users to go viral.
Month: April 2015
Internet Dating Jobs Listing Update – April 2015
OPW – Apr 12 - The new Internet dating jobs listing is live on the Internet Dating Jobs blog.
Below see a couple of this month's most interesting offers:
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From our esteemed Courtland Brooks clients:
DatingFactory
Customer Communication and Marketing Manager
Global Personals USA (Webdate, Fling, WealthyMen, Crush.com)
Brand Manager (Caliente.com)
MillionaireMatch
Marketing Managers
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AreYouInterested.com (AYI) – (SNAP Interactive, Inc.)
Head of Growth (The Grade)
eDarling.de (descriptions in German)
Chief Product Officer
eHarmony
Vice President, Product Management
Jiayuan
Co-director of the new media to promote
Match.com, Chemistry.com, People Media
Director, Corporate Development
Twoo
Director of Marketing
To see more open positions go here.
Do you have an idating industry job offer which is not included? Please, send it to petra@courtlandbrooks.com and we will add it to the list.
How Teachers And CEOs Are Alike: An Essay By Aaron Schildkrout
EDWEEK – Apr 11 – Aaron Schildkrout runs Growth Platform at Uber, in San Fran. Previously, he was the co-founder of HowAboutWe. He was a teacher for four years at Codman Academy Charter Public School, in Boston.
Teaching is a lot more like being a CEO. They say the three jobs of the CEO are to make sure there is cash in the bank, to hire great people, and to define the vision. I’d add to that: to build highly effective processes. If you achieve these four things, you will have “nothing to do.” I became a data-driven teacher long before I was a data-driven CEO. I was often giving students 10 or more quantitative grades during every class. I would put a spreadsheet transparency on an overhead and would add micro-grades to it throughout the class. I would then add the grades to our school’s online grading system. Consequently, the students got addicted to checking — and improving — their grades. It’s the same for the CEO. The goal is for every single person in the company to qualitatively understand their goals and their progress toward these goals.
Luckily, being a teacher — like being a CEO—is profoundly fulfilling, independent of compensation and status.
80% Of Gay Men Met Their Long-Term Partners On A Dating App
NEWNOWNEXT – Apr 10 – According to a study published in AIDS and Behavior, in 2001 only 14% gay met on dating sites/apps. In 2014 that number rose to 80%.
by Alexander Stevenson
See full article at NewNowNext
Happn: The Hottest New Dating App In London
STANDARD.CO.UK – Apr 10 - Happn launched in the UK last summer and claims 250K Londoners have used it already, with a further 140K outside the capital. Invented by three Frenchmen, it is taking on the might of Tinder, which has ~1.2M London users.
Double The Buyout Offer For Jiayuan.com, Suggest Heng Ren Investments
STREET INSIDER – Apr 8 – An offer to buy out shareholders of Jiayuan.com undervalues the company and should be raised by 119%, according to Heng Ren Investments LP. "The offer comes with Jiayuan.com’s stock depressed near a 52-week low after a difficult 2014. After Jiayuan.com's IPO four years ago at $11.00 per share, Vast Profit is offering to buy the company back at $5.37 per share – a 51% discount. In its appraisal value of Jiayuan.com, Heng Ren, determined the company’s stock is worth $11.74 per share. U.S.-based shareholders, who are being pushed to sell at a low price by Vast Profit, will reap no profit from this migration. Heng Ren believes current shareholders need to be fairly compensated by Vast Profit with a higher offer price.
The full article was originally published at Street Insider, but is no longer available.
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
SparkStarter Hits 100,000 Downloads, Raises $250K
TWIN CITIES BUSINESS – Apr 8 - SparkStarter said its mobile app has 100K downloads and 10M profiles created. The app, which launched just before Valentine’s Day, offers features similar to Tinder but it’s the matchmaker feature that sets it apart: Users can set their friends up on dates by rating pairings of their connections on Facebook. The company raised $250,000 in funding recently, with another quarter of a million coming via open round.
by Andre Eggert
See full article at Twin Cities Business
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
Ashley Madison Drops Korean Lawsuit
THE CANADIAN PRESS – Apr 8 - Ashley Madison has dropped its lawsuit against the government of South Korea after a court in that country overturned a decades-old law banning adultery. Ashley Madison launched in South Korea at the time when adultery was illegal, and was shut down shortly after. The website has now been restored.
See full article at Globe and Mail
Chinese Dating App Qingchifan Secures Series B Funding
TECHINASIA – Apr 7 – Qingchifan, a dating app for meeting up with strangers for dinner dates, has raised a series B round of funding led by Vertex Ventures, followed by Sequoia Capital. The exact amount was not disclosed, but is reported to be $20.5M. Qingchifan, which translates to "invite to eat," looks a lot like Momo, the location-based app for meeting strangers. Launched in February 2014, Quingchifan now reports 10M registered users, of whom 45% are female. The average user is 23-24 years old.
by Paul Bischoff
See full article at TechInAsia
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
HashSnap Is A Snapchat-Esque Dating App
SF WEEKLY – Apr 7 – Launched in Israel 8 months ago and based in San Francisco, HashSnap aims to allow its users to express themselves through pictures. It is a cross between Snapchat and Tinder. Every day there’s a new theme, such as "Me and My Ride" or “First Thing in the Morning”. Users take and upload pictures for each theme using the app’s camera, much like Snapchat. When a user sees a snap they like, they can check out the profile of the person who posted it and “like” them. If the person likes them back, they can have a conversation through the app.