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Tell us about yourself?
I’m a healthcare entrepreneur and hippie turned startup founder whose mission is to heal the world’s loneliness with better in-person connections.
What lessons has being an entrepreneur taught you?
Everyone wants to say they want to own a company, but no one wants to be the owner. Taking ownership and responsibility will fundamentally change the function of how you view yourself and your business.
If you could go back in time to when you first started your business, what piece of advice would you give yourself?
Get ready for a marathon, and change the mindset that a productive day isn’t one that is perfect, but one where you progressed.
A lot of entrepreneurs find it difficult to balance their work and personal lives. How have you found that?
It is very true. Therefore it is important to have people in your personal life that understand your entrepreneurial journey. But that’s why it’s important to create a strong mission and vision for yourself while undergoing this journey.
What is the inspiration behind your business?
I, like so many people, got so many headaches from modern dating apps: ghosting, flaky dates, lack of meaningful connection and communication. The aha moment was getting tired of drinking dates (I am sober now) during the pandemic and enjoying outside, in-person dates, such as a park or going on a bike ride with someone – I found that these types of dates led to healthier relationships. I wanted to create a platform where people could set up these There is more to this story, but essentially that’s how it got started – why not design an app that focused on healthy relationships through healthier, wholesome dates. The mission has grown to be: Healing loneliness in our world by facilitating safe, genuine, in-person connections.
What do you think is your magic sauce? What sets you apart from the competitors?
Our magic sauce is two fold: 1) the matching algorithm focuses on activities, not attractiveness. Girls won’t swipe right on someone they’re not attracted to, so we instead focus on the lifestyle of the person (dining, exercising, playing, etc) to match users with each other. 2) We’ve reverse engineered the dating app playbook to start with a successful result: we start by planning a perfect date (which can be rescheduled / cancelled with no consequence if the vibes don’t match) as the first message, and then leave the daters to fill in the details.
How have you found sales so far? Do you have any lessons you could pass on to other founders in the same market as you just starting out?
Currently we are in the process of launching our reservation funnel for February, which is an invitation for future users to help guide our features with their feedback and to reserve a years worth of our Diamond (Premium) features for the price of 1 month. This helps us build the absolute best dating app for our users while hearing their thoughts. Lessons wise – be as lean as possible and focus on hearing what your customers say.
What is the biggest challenge you have faced so far in your business, and how did you overcome it?
I would say finding the right people has been the hardest part – whether it be employees or freelancers to get the work done, particularly overseas. However, if you do it long enough, you do meet some awesome talented people along the way.
What do you consider are the main strengths of operating your business in Texas over other states in the US?
I’m proud to consider myself a Texan (lived here most of my whole life) and love the economic environment here: we’re global leaders in hospitality, healthcare, and tech in the Hill Country area. I graduated from the University of Houston Hilton College (Hospitality) so I know the unique nature of the food & hospitality here, along with the friendly and kind nature of Texans. I believe this would be a fantastic place to gather the first initial users for aidoo.
Are there any disadvantages of operating our business in Texas?
There is a lot of political turmoil going on at the border, but we don’t find that it will be impacting the function of a dating app – however, we will be using ID verification to ensure that all users are legitimate. On that note, there is a huge trafficking problem in Houston – we will be donating 5% of profits to combat this issue (another 5% will be donated to suicide prevention).
Texas has a pretty diverse population. How have you found the quickly changing demographics have impacted your business? Have you got new opportunities? Managed to expand your business into new areas?
Yes, the diversity of Texas has been amazing for our app. Since there’s so many backgrounds and things to do here, there’s so many people and businesses to tap into. And almost everyone that I meet here is open to trying new things, especially if they think it’ll improve their love life.
It is often reported that, in Texas, politics and business are intertwined. Have you noticed this? Has it impacted your business?
Not really in the context of a dating app – the closest situation was detailed above. I’d like to stay away from politics if possible and focus on the social issues that we are tackling (loneliness, suicide, and human trafficking)
With rising prices across Texas (and the US as a whole) have you been impacted? Do you have a plan for dealing with inflation going forward?
Yes – we are offering our lowest price in the reservation funnel now to build relationships with the early adopters, priced at $15 to reserve a whole year. While established apps like Tinder are offering $500 / month Premium Select plans to satisfy their elite, we are focusing on creating connections for everybody, so our Diamond (Premium) plans will be in the reach of most daters – around $20-30 per month. Our premium features will include exclusive giveaways & restaurant promotions, free referrals, and drawings for vacation packages with our partners.
And finally, if people want to get involved and learn more about your business, how should they do that?
At the start of the year, we will be using the reservation funnel to help build the initial features of the app, and, as we scale, we will be announcing an equity-based crowdfunding campaign via platforms like Wefunder later in the year so that users can become owners in our future. To check out our vibe and content, interested users can check out our socials @aidoo.ai
