FAST COMPANY – Burned out on dating apps, singles are turning to Facebook's private Groups. Depending on the group, users will share pictures of themselves or of a friend who is looking for a relationship, and then will field the responses. Date Him New York, for example, has amassed 2K members since its creation in August.
Category: Outlets – Fast Company
Forging Connections Inside “The Fourth Place”
Tech Startups to Watch in 2022
FAST COMPANY – Dating app SoSyncd is one of the top 15 tech startups to watch this year, according to FastCompany. Founded in 2021 by sisters Jessica and Louella Alderson, SoSyncd has a different approach that leans on science. Instead of swipe-right-swipe-left routine, SoSyncd' app matches people based on their Myers-Briggs Personality Type, which is derived from a five-minute test. SoSyncd then matches people who might have some commonalities. The company says it already has ~100K users.
Ghosting on Dating App Snack Will Make Users Invisible
FAST COMPANY – Snack, a video-centric service that pitches itself as TikTok meets Tinder, says people who ghost too frequently will become less visible on its platform. Users who ghost other users too frequently can be reported for doing so, Snack says, and if the behavior keeps up, the visibility of their profile will be reduced over time. Snack launched early last year with $3.5M in pre-seed investment led by Kindred Ventures and Coelius Capital. The Vancouver-based company was founded by Kimberly Kaplan, a dating-app veteran and former executive at Plenty of Fish, now owned by Match Group.
How Background Check Startup Garbo Protects Online Dating Users
FAST COMPANY – Aug 10 – Kathryn Kosmides's experience leaving an abusive relationship inspired her to create an easy way for people to find out more about who they're dating. She created the nonprofit background check platform Garbo, which allows individuals to access public records of violent crimes for a nominal fee. With just a first name and phone number, Garbo users can look up records for someone they've matched with on an online dating app. Following a seven-figure investment by Match Group in March, Garbo's technology will be piloted on Tinder later this year. Garbo doesn't disclose sensitive personal details like home addresses when users search for a record. The platform already filters out non-violent offenses like marijuana possession and minor traffic violations.
Bumble’s NYC Restaurant Debut Delayed
Bumble Survey Reveals Summer Dating Habits
FAST COMPANY – June 17 – People are looking to date IRL again, but their priorities have changed, according to the latest survey data from Bumble, 30% said they would not date or have sex with an unvaccinated person. 65% now think it's possible to fall in love without meeting someone in person, 38% prefer to go on virtual first dates with people before meeting them in person.
How Match’s Black and Hispanic Dating Apps Are Helping Close the Vaccine Gap
How Bumble’s Clever Design Helped the App Go Public
Bumble Hits 100 Million Users
FAST COMPANY – July 16 – Bumble is also announcing a major reorganization and rebranding that will make the company the new overseer of its sibling dating app, Badoo. Until now, the two apps had been under the umbrella of the holding company MagicLab. But that company is being renamed Bumble. Bumble is bringing on a new president, Tariq Shaukat, previously president of industry products and solutions at Google Cloud. Bumble also announced a new board of directors. Led by chairwoman Ann Mather, the former CFO of Pixar Studios, the Bumble board also includes Pamela Thomas-Graham, the author and former CEO of CNBC; Elisa Steele, the chairwoman of Cornerstone; and Matthew Bromberg, COO of Zynga. Bumble and Badoo have a base of 600M users. CEO Wolfe Herd now oversees ~750 employees in Austin, London, and Moscow.