So Money® singletons, this episode’s for you. If you’re looking for love and you like technology…our guest today is marrying the two with his new dating app called Hinge. You might have heard of it. I have to be honest, I’m really behind the times when it comes to matchmaking apps. When I was dating years ago, there was Match.com and it was still a little weird to say you met your boyfriend or wife ONLINE. People would make up all sorts of lies…and say “oh and we met at Barnes and Nobles or at a party…when really, you met at 2am online in your pajamas courtesy of match.com.
Now the online dating industry is an estimated 2 billion dollar market with popular matchmaking apps like Tinder, Coffee Meets Bagels, Bumble, The League…and a relative new player in the field – Hinge. Our guest today is the founder and CEO of Hinge Justin Mcleod.
Hinge is a relationship app that helps people meet through friends. Unlike apps that show you random people in your area, Hinge shows only people in your social circles. Basically think of Hinge as a good friend who’s trying to set you up with all of their single friends and over time, they start to prioritize matches based on your preferences and tastes.
A graduate of Colgate University, Justin took a job in management consulting and then went on to attend Harvard Business School. He always has had a real passion for connecting people and decided to follow it years later when he founded Hinge in February 2011. Shortly thereafter in February 2013, the app was launched and the rest is history.
According to an article released this year, Hinge has made over 8 million matches by late October of last year and boasts 35,500 dates per week and 1,500 relationships happen due to the app. Hinge is currently live in dozens of cities including London, Toronto, Sydney and Mumbai. Just last year the app’s active user base grew 5x!
Three takeaways from our interview today include:
- Starting a competitive company in an already crowded marketplace. How do you set yourself apart?
- His self-described “insane” investment strategy…his portfolio contains 2 stocks!
- The real life mega entrepreneurs that Justin has the great fortune of knowing and learning personally from.
If you would like to learn more about Justin McLeod, visit his app’s website hinge.co or follow the app on Twitter @HingeApp.
One of my favorite quotes from our interview: “I’m not afraid to take risk whether it’s financial or otherwise.” – Click to Tweet
