Munich Startup: What does your startup do? What problem are you solving?
Blindmate: Blindmate is a dating app that solves the “dating app” problem. In general, dating apps are a great opportunity for meeting new people. But the classic apps are incredibly bad at doing what they’re actually supposed to do: bring people together. With superficiality and competition, they often make people even more lonely.
Blindmate is countering that with a concept that is both old and new: Instead of looking for a partner yourself, you have your friends match you with someone. Instead of swiping away on your own, friends create profiles for each other and look for matches for each other This makes the profiles much more honest and entertaining. And matches are made based on character and friends’ opinions instead of just photos and the same old lines. And because you no longer have to swipe endlessly for yourself, you can concentrate on getting to know people. And it’s obviously all a lot more fun together with friends!
Blindmate: From a hobby project to a full time job
Munich Startup: But that’s nothing out of the box!
Blindmate: It actually is. There are two apps in the US that let friends be involved to a certain extent, but they ultimately work based on the same concept as all other dating apps. And with the same problems. Blindmate is the first app where friends really look for partners together.
Munich Startup: What is your founding story?
Blindmate: We – Anna, Ben, Andi and Laurenz – have been friends since our school days. Blindmate was our hobby project for several years alongside work and university. We wanted to build an app that truly brings people together and is fun to use together. Since our launch in March 2021, we received such incredibly positive feedback that three of us have now quit our jobs to continue to improve Blindmate.
Munich Startup: What have been your biggest challenges so far?
Blindmate: The launch without any budget whatsoever. Blindmate was our hobby project, and we not only launched without a budget, but also without any experience in marketing. Nevertheless, the launch went really well! The first 30,000 users primarily found their way to Blindmate through word of mouth. In the near future, we expect to have both a budget for marketing as well as new team members to help us with the necessary know-how.
“A lot of people simply want an alternative to lonely swiping”
Munich Startup: Where would you like to be in one year, and where in five years?
Blindmate: At the moment, we’re a small dating app and a team of four friends and fantastic supporters. In one year, we want to be known in Germany and to have doubled our team. In five years, we want to be one of the top ten dating apps to bring people together across the world. The road to get there is obviously still long, but in light of the fantastic feedback (4.8 stars in both stores) and viral growth, the odds aren’t looking so bad. A lot of people simply want an alternative to lonely swiping.
Munich Startup: How have you experienced Munich as a startup location so far?
Blindmate: We unfortunately haven’t experienced very much so far. It was basically at the beginning of the corona pandemic that we went full time (and most of us are still on the go quite a lot), which is why we primarily work digitally with each other. What we have definitely noticed, however, is that the atmosphere in Munich is excellent for innovation and that Munich residents are really open to new ideas!
Munich Startup: Risk or security?
Blindmate: Definitely more risk. Even though we don’t have anything against security, we decided to get involved in developing yet another dating app. And we’re good enough in statistics to know that it isn’t necessarily the most secure job – but it’s a really good one and one that is important right now.