SwoonMe uses avatars and audio clips for its allegedly "less superficial" dating app. Tanvi Gupta, the founder and CEO, joined CheddarNews to discuss how this app takes a new spin on dating apps to take appearance out of the equation to finding a meaningful relationship.

Closing Bell

SwoonMe Looks to Be the 'Less Superficial' Online Dating App 

Welcome back to Closing Bell and cheddar news, everyone. Have you ever been on a dating app swiping endlessly through profiles without finding the right match. Well, new startup says its aim is to fix the problem by making profiles more personal with the use of sound, take a listen. Hey, this is Mihaela, like Michaela, but with an H I look for kindness, understanding the word Home to me is very special. A movie that described me will be called The Go getter because that's the type of person that people usually say I am okay, well, spoon me ask users to record a voice clip to tell others about themselves and what they're looking for in a partner while hiding their real faces using an avatar instead. So joining me now is time to Gupta founder and Ceo of Swoon me at Tandy, Thanks so much for coming on this show. I love what you're doing here. Talk to me more about your app and how you came up with this idea. Hi Kristin, I'm happy to be here. Um so you know, spoon means all about finding meaningful connections and we know finding meaningful connections is a core human need. However, almost all platforms that are hot at the moment for social connections like dating apps like Tinder bumble social media, I G Tiktok are heavily indexed on how one looks and not on underlying personalities or interest and this is especially challenging for women and minority and we want to change this by empowering users to find meaningful connections based on voice avatar's personality with our focus initial focus on dating. we're basically giving everyone an equal opportunity without any bias. So soon me is poised to be a metaverse social network with a mission to empower users to find meaningful connections and the way I came up with this, it's basically a product of my own personal grievances of dating in new york city. So I I was in on about like 7 to 8 dating apps when I was a single girl in my early twenties. So and I always felt it was so superficial, I was always just like getting judged on these filtered static photos and I just felt something needed to change. I saw a clear gap in the market where we needed to provide ways for people to connect that go beyond just one static photo. So and I think when I worked at at meta, so I felt like I had this wealth of consumer technology experience and I just wanted to build something of my own and being entrepreneurial in nature, I think it was just time to just dive in and test my hypothesis and and it's actually resonating pretty well with our users. Good. Okay. Creative name swoon me as well, I like it as so 100,000 users, I think we were showing their recently launched just last year, I believe how are you planning to grow the act on the um well I think the way we're planning to grow it is right now, we are in U. S. And Canada in India. And then we are going to be launching it in europe pretty soon and also in Australia and other asian countries. So I think what we are our long term goals here is that soon we will be a leading platform for users to find me meaningful connections and metaphors. So animated avatars which are really talking video style avatars will provide a private yet expressive way for users to connect based on common interests. So and I think um this giving this delightful fun experiences to users which is and our target demographic is gen z's, it's resonating with them. So so I think Given the growth that we have seen, I think we're ready to basically scale at this point we're looking for, we're raising the second round of seed of seed funding which is $2 million 20% has been committed already. So as soon as we get more funding we're like ready to scale the hell out of this. And in terms of the cost to the consumer Tanvi, is it free or do consumers need to pay? Um it's free at the moment but we do plan to monetize um in the, you know long term by giving value added services like um sending custom stickers to each other, participating in events to find romantic partner, premium features to customize the avatar with Brandon branded content like adorning your avatar and a Gucci shirt or allowing users to give virtual goods like flower clothes, accessories to each other? Which is a completely different model than ad based model that you see on apps like Tiktok instagram and and that's something that will vibe well with a privacy focused at. Um I really, I think this is great. How do you measure meaningful connection? How do you make sure that your users are getting that on the app? Sure. Um so we have many product lovers which nudge users to create high quality profiles with engaging avatars and sound bites. So this process is good in separating users who are serious about looking for relationships and helps us focus on them. Example, if you're for example, if your sound bite is low quality or empty, you are not activated on the plan and we will lead you to record something exciting to let other users know a little bit about you separately. Not having pictures automatically is a forcing function which dictates, you know, which users are serious about finding meaningful relationships. So I would say that the the bar to sign up on swimming is already higher. It requires a lot out of a user to actually go in and record or you know, intros in your own voice and messages in your own voice. So it just automatically filters out people who are just looking for casual hook ups and not looking for something meaningful in their lives? Uh huh. And what about the ability to boost a profile? Is that something that you might explore down the road or how would you discover? For instance, That's probably the better question. What's the discover ability on on swoon me? Yeah. So there are two ways. One is that um I think in the long term we will let users and long term, I mean like very near term our plans to monetize our by end of this year. So um people will be able to pay and get their profile surface like on like, you know, top trending profiles in people's other users areas. And the other way to surface your profile um on the trending tab, which we have on spoon meat is that you record like a kick a quality sound bite. Like talking about yourself that maximizes your chances. Um you know, to get more matches, but it also surfaces you on the platform. Like you saw a trending trending tab video that you do showed your audience. That's a way to ask basically the feedback loop. So think about like I. G explore or Tiktok top trending content. That's how we have top trending content on spoon me. So if you like there is go for like audio bites that can go viral in social media from tsunami in the near future. I love it. I guess my last question is you're looking to raise money now, When are you hoping to close your next round? We're hoping to close by end of september and like I said, we're raising $2 million of which 20% has been committed. We have money from VC firms, um, like Good Water Capital here in Silicon Valley and also Angels. But we are looking for some big investors to come and come on board and complete this round with us. Oh, Tommy Gupta, Thank you so much for coming on. I really enjoyed hearing about this. Tommy is the founder and Ceo of swoon me.