How I Came to Own an Early Stage Indian Dating Startup

Dating apps have become very popular in recent years. There are a lot of different dating apps available on the market. It can be hard to decide which one is the best for you. In this article, I will share with you how I acquired an early stage Indian dating startup.

The Era of Tinder Swipe Surge

Dating as a concept has been around for centuries, but the technology and platforms that facilitate dating have changed over time. The same is true for the way people date. In earlier times, people would go out on dates and meet potential partners in person. Now, people use online dating platforms to find their soulmates.

Swiping to matchmaking is a concept that Tinder popularized. When people in your area are lighting up Tinder, they refer to these moments as a Swipe Surge. During a Swipe Surge, activity is up to 15x higher!

A recent report found that Tinder swipes are unhealthy and many people are starting to question the validity of this kind of dating apps that relies on mindless swipes.

How I Became Interested in Dating Startups

I’ve always been curious about dating startups, as I know the current model of dating apps has a lot of room for improvement. As a “domain collector”, I own a domain name, people.singles, that relates to dating. I also run a community site for teenagers that they mainly use to meet other teenagers.

But, to be very honest, I wasn’t really interested to run a dating startup in 2022 in the middle of my 12 startups in 12 months challenge. That is until I saw a tweet by Prashant Bagga about selling his very early stage dating startup that he started with his friend. The startup was called One and its mission is to facilitate mindful dating.

What I Liked about this Dating Startup

I was impressed with how One is trying to tackle the issues that the current dating apps have. Instead of making it a “hookup” app, they introduced mindful dating with a fun game called One Game for the matchmaking process. Even though they were developing a basic Android app, they had to validate their idea with an Instagram account. They already adjusted their value proposition to get some traction. I think they’ve found a better way to build a dating platform.

As of today, the platform has more than 300 users and it already matched around 70 couples so far. Currently, the majority of users are from a few Indian cities.

How One Game is Trying to Improve Matchmaking

At the initial stage, One is doing things that don’t scale, which is actually necessary to validate the idea and to scale the startup in the future. There is one Android app in the making. Currently One operates from just an Instagram page and One Game event page.

How One Game works:

• In order to ensure a high-quality experience for everyone, One only hosts a few selected people for each event.
• A couple is matched and a host operates the 30-minute conversion by introducing an ice breaker game.
• At the end of a 30-minute conversation, the couple will decide if they want to continue or not. If they want to continue, then we have a match!

By introducing One Game, the platform improves the following user experiences.

• Resolves choice overload and decision paralysis for girls
• Helps boys who don’t have a way with words
• Provides a safe environment — prevents bullying
• No more fake profiles
• A pleasant experience to vibe check
• Increases privacy
• Resolves mindless swiping

How I Acquired It

After seeing Prashant’s tweet about selling the startup that he and his friend co-founded, I reached out to him. I am not an investor, but the asking price was within my reach, so I went ahead with it.

I DM’ed him on Twitter and he replied back. After a couple of days, we had a voice call over Google Meet to learn more about his startup. He gave a brief overview of the startup’s goals and what they were trying to achieve.

I was pleased and decided to buy it during that call. Prashant agreed to accept the payment with a cryptocurrency. I sent the payment in a stable coin, USDT, before we hang up the call. And the deal was done, just like that!

The Future of One

After taking over One, I want to do it justice and build a sustainable platform where people will have a pleasant experience finding their partners. Currently, the startup is in the pre-revenue stage. I would like to introduce a revenue model.

Expanding to more countries would be a major milestone. I may also introduce this platform to my existing teen community as well.

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