BUSINESS INSIDER – Oct 27 – Hinge founder and CEO Justin McLeod doesn't have email on his smartphone. He said it makes him a better leader because he has time and space to think. The only things he can currently do with his phone are check the time, make calls and send texts, listen to music, and browse Hinge. "I'm a much better decision-maker, I'm a much better strategist, I'm a much better leader when I'm not wrapped up in the minutia of what's going on in the company and what's going on in the world," McLeod told Business Insider. "I'm giving myself the space." When he takes vacations, he doesn't check in with his staff for "a week or two at a time." In fact, McLeod made the decision to "reboot" Hinge, in 2016, while he was away from the office and spending Thanksgiving with his family. With the time and space to think clearly, he realized that Hinge had become too similar to other dating apps. Hinge subsequently made a number of changes to the app, most notably removing the swiping feature. Today, it bills itself as "the relationship app."
Category: Outlets – Business Insider
Women Across The US Are Spending Thousands On Dating Coaches
BUSINESS INSIDER – Sep 24 – In cities across the US, a growing number of successful women in their 30s are hiring dating coaches to help them find long-term relationships. Both coaches and clients say the goal isn't to find the perfect person right away, but to learn the skills to find and maintain a healthy partnership. These coaches charge anywhere from $1,800 to $18K for different types of services. Damona Hoffman is a certified dating coach and host of the Dates and Mates podcast in Los Angeles. ~70% of her clients are women, typically high earners and feeling the pressure of society. By contrast, the men tend to be less career-focused and haven't developed the skills to approach or flirt with women. Evan Marc Katz is one of the first dating coaches to market himself as such (he started coaching in 2004). Katz, who works exclusively with women, said those who reach out to him are typically at a breaking point. They don't know what's wrong with them and they're afraid of being alone forever. Katz teaches every client the "2-2-2" rule: Exchange two messages on the dating site, exchange two emails, and then have two phone calls before a first date. "It specifically teaches people to avoid becoming part of some guy's texting harem," he said.
Toffee Is A New Dating App For People Who Went To Private School
BUSINESS INSIDER – Aug 22 -UK dating app Toffee, which caters exclusively to the privately educated, has plans to roll out in other countries over the next 12 months. The app is also launching on Android in September. A Toffee press release stated that it now has 10K monthly active users in the UK.
by Isobel Asher Hamilton
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A Tinder VP Wrote A Heartfelt Email Before Being Put On Leave For Filing A $2B Lawsuit Against Match Group
BUSINESS INSIDER – Aug 16 – Tinder‘s marketing and communications chief Rosette Pambakian has reportedly been put on leave. She and three other staff ended up on leave after they sued the dating app’s owners for $2B. Pambakian wrote a heartfelt email to staff claiming it was important to “shine a light on the terrible practices I have witnessed from Match.” Pambakian said she had remained at Tinder because of her love for the company. IAC said the allegations raised in the lawsuit were “meritless” and it intends to “vigorously defend [itself] against them.”
by Jake Kanter
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Tinder’s Founders Are Suing Match Group And IAC Saying They’ve Been Ripped Off
by Kif Leswing
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Relationship Experts: Dating Apps Can Be Useful But Not Necessarily For Finding Love
BUSINESS INSIDER – July 25 – Claudia Duran is in the sometimes-helpful-but-mostly-making-things-worse camp: She uses the term "swipe vulture culture" to describe people's behavior on these services. Duran is a Miami-based matchmaker at dating service Elite Connections, where she charges $15K for a six-month membership. "People start to become reliant on that sort of high and instant 'Wow! They like me!'" It doesn't take long, she said, before "it really becomes an ego-feeding thing, rather than going out there, sitting with someone, and really just starting to get honest and vulnerable," she said. "The best thing about online dating is that it widens your pool of prospective mates," said Eli Finkel, who is a psychologist at Northwestern University, a professor at the Kellogg School of Management, and the author of "The All-Or-Nothing Marriage." Jess Carbino, Bumble's in-house sociologist recommends spending 30 minutes a day and then using the rest of your time to actually go on dates with people you've matched with.
Elite Dating App The League Is Hosting A Luxurious Cruise In France
BUSINESS INSIDER – June 30 – This August, dating app The League is hosting a weeklong cruise in France, in conjunction with U by Uniworld. ~80 users will mix and mingle in the hopes of finding love; the itinerary includes touring Versailles and biking along Seine. So far, ~2,600 League users have applied. Depending on the type of accommodation, the price of a flight and a room is ~$3k.
CEO Of Bumble Travels With A Bodyguard
BUSINESS INSIDER – June 26 – Bumble CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd travels with a bodyguard and employs full-time security at the company's offices. This is after a cyber attack on Bumble last summer, when a neo-Nazi website published an article with photos and phone numbers of Bumble staff, encouraging people to harass them. The FBI stepped in to take down the website. "We're a feminist company so we came under attack," said Wolfe Herd.
by Isobel Asher Hamilton
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Coffee Meets Bagel Co-founder Found Her Partner On The App By Using A Few ‘Cheesy’ Lines
BUSINESS INSIDER – June 23 – Coffee Meets Bagel cofounder and co-CEO Dawoon Kang met her current partner on the app several years ago. In her profile, she mentioned that she was "in pursuit of my personal legend" and was looking for someone who "aspires to be a contribution to the world." Kang was not interested in being cool when she put together her Coffee Meets Bagel profile. And whatever she did clearly worked, because she's still dating the person she met on the app. In May, the app raised $12M, meaning it has raised a total of ~$20M since launching in 2012.
by Shana Lebowitz
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CoffeeMeetsBagel: There’s A Big Difference Between How Men And Women Date Online
BUSINESS INSIDER – Jun 19 – In 2016, dating app Coffee Meets Bagel introduced "#LadiesChoice," a new format that offered men and women distinct user experiences. Men would receive up to 21 "bagels," or matches, every day at noon, and the app would then present women with a curated selection of the men who had liked them. Users who identify as LGBT would receive up to six matches a day. According to Dawoon Kang, a Coffee Meets Bagel cofounder, the company made this change because they'd seen stark differences in the way men and women date online. "The more bagels we give to men, the more engaged they are. They like it. They actually like going through profiles and checking out different women." On the other hand, Kang said, "When we gave more bagels to women, the attention that they give drops significantly. They stop responding. They stop checking." In 2016, scientists at Queen Mary University of London, Sapienza University of Rome, and Royal Ottawa Health Care Group found that women on Tinder generally swipe right only for men they're seriously interested in, while men are less picky. But when it comes to sending that first message, the researchers found that just 7% of male matches sent a message, compared to 21% of women.
by Shana Lebowitz
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