TECH CRUNCH – Mar 21 – Launched in 2018, the Bumble Fund backs early-stage businesses founded and led by women. The fund's commitments range between $5K and $250K with an average check size of $25K. Williams has been investing in women and minority-owned businesses through Serena Ventures since 2014. She also serves on the boards of the tech companies Poshmark and SurveyMonkey. She began her relationship with Bumble in January, culminating with a starring role in the company's most recent Super Bowl commercial earlier this year and will be leading the Bumble Fund pitch competition next month, along with Bumble founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd. Through Serena Ventures, Williams already has invested in over thirty companies while the Bumble Fund has made nine investments to date.
Month: March 2019
Mobile Growth Summit: Catherine Cook Connelly, Co-Founder & VP Brand Strategy, The Meet Group
OPW – Mar 21 – The Meet Group grew its live-streaming product – Live – to a $48M business in less than a year. Live, which monetizes through in-app purchases, is one of the most engaging features the company ever launched. Users spend ~25M minutes in Live each day. In her presentation, Catherine Cook Connelly talks about how they built Live, why it monetizes so well, and how it enables meaningful connections for their users on MeetMe, Skout, Tagged, and LOVOO.
The Apps That Aim to Keep the Spark Alive in Relationships
GQ – Mar 21 – Co-founder and CMO of Happy Couple, Arnaud Le Mérour, says the app has 800K registered users. The focus of his app, he says, is on improving communication in relationship. "It wasn't built to exploit user engagement, and it wasn't designed to replace real life interactions," said Le Mérour, who explained that many users play the game while unable to have face-to-face communication because of distance or alternating schedules. "We wanted to create a tool that helps people to learn more about their partners and facilitate conversations around both tough and important topics in fun ways," continues Le Mérour. Desire, which has~1M downloads and users ranging in age between 25-44, according to co-founder Marta Plaza, lets couples select from a variety of dares, from relatively tame to relatively spicy. Each dare is assigned a point value. The more points you rack up, the closer you come to unlocking the "hottest" challenges. Kindu, a similar app, is intended to increase physical intimacy using suggestions like, "surprise your partner in the shower one day." The goal of apps like Kindu is removing shame and shyness from conversations about physical intimacy.
Dallas-Founded Dating App, Vouch, Brings on a New Female CEO
DALLAS INNOVATES – Mar 18 – Last year, Bachelor alum Sean Lowe announced he was launching a dating app where friends could swipe for their single friends. Now, Lowe and his team have brought on a local female voice to grow the platform: Christiana Yebra. Yebra is well-versed in the startup space, having helped launch and sell Texas' first on-demand urgent care app. She led a med-tech startup in territory sales until its acquisition in 2018, and founded Dallas Millennial Club. Singles can download the Vouch app and then invite their friends to be 'Vouchers' that build their profile, endorse their qualities, and approve potential candidates.
Singles Are Open to Discuss Politics on a First Date
BUSTLE – Mar 20 – Elite dating app The Inner Circle conducted some research into how open members of their site were to talking about politics on a first date. And it turns out people are more than prepared to do so, as 62% of singles would be happy to talk politics on a first date. 13% of their members said that they would be really happy to share their political views with their partner. However, the first date was off limits for them. In addition, 25% said they would never discuss politics on a date at all.
by Alice Broster
See full article at Bustle
The Frenchwoman Who Took on Tinder Wrote a Book About Her Experience
Civic App Can Give Online Daters Control Over Their Data & Verify New Users
DATING ADVICE – Mar 19 – Civic has designed a new mobile authentication tools for consumers and businesses using blockchain technology. Online dating apps can look to Civic to make the online dating experience more trustworthy and secure. Civic provides users with a digital identity that uses biometrics to protect an individual's identity, and it empowers the consumers to keep private information, including credit card numbers and passwords, safe. Instead of logging in through Facebook and sharing data with a dating app, users could log in through Civic and only share relevant info, such as name, date of birth, and phone number. Users will have more control of their personal data and dating apps can build trust by verifying that every user is who they say they are.
Rockstar CEO, Grant Langston, on Success and eharmony
THRIVE GLOBAL – Mar 19 –
Q: Tell us about your career trajectory?
A: I moved to LA to play music at 21. While law was a recommended career path for me, studying political science at Auburn University, I ultimately spent most of my time writing music and playing in bands. As I started to look for real work there was a person I knew from music who ran an advertising agency, Sandy Kaye. I told her what I was doing and she said, "I think you would be a good copywriter." I began creating TV and radio advertising, which was fun and difficult. After a few years, I got a call from a friend who asked me to work for eharmony. Over the next 15 years I did every non-technical job in the company. And, in July of 2016, the board asked me to be the CEO.
Q: What got you interested in the industry?
A: During the first TV shoot we did, I got to speak with the couples we were matching, and I was sold.
Q: What projects can we expect to see next under the Parship acquisition?
A: Right now, we're just putting the two companies together. It is a major undertaking to involve teams working between Hamburg and Los Angeles. We're looking at about a year of work to complete these changes.
Q: What in your opinion is the future of dating?
A: As long as consumers feel safe, artificial intelligence and other kinds of technology can make online dating more accurate and effective in specific ways. While I've seen presentations on the integration of DNA matching into an online dating, for example, I'm skeptical of people's willingness to provide samples.
Q: What would you tell your younger self?
A: I would urge my younger self to worry less and continue to make wise choices.
Facebook Prepares Roll Out of Dating App in Europe
by Ilse Jurrien
See full article at LetsGoDigital
Ashley Madison Reaches 60 Million Members
PR NEWSWIRE – Mar 18 – Ashley Madison has released its Report on Customer Statistics for the year of 2018, claiming ~14,500 new member accounts were added on average each day. The report has further revealed that for every active paid male account there was 1.11 active female accounts created in 2018. The site surpassed the 60M member mark in February.
See full article at PR Newswire