Like a lot of us, Jason Sherman’s had some shoddy dating experiences.
Of particular frustration to him: the constant emailing back and forth just to make plans to meet. Then once in person many of the women didn’t have chemistry with him.
“It’s a long process and it gets pretty expensive. Really, when you go on a date you know in the first five minutes whether there’s anything there,” he told me.
The difference between the rest of us and Jason is that he created an app to try to address this problem.
I know what you’re thinking—another f&*$in’ app?! Truth be told, a part of me has that in my mind every time I hear of another digital dating product. There are just so many out there it’s hard to keep track.
Jason’s is called Instamour, and I chatted with the CEO and co-founder recently, as the company really tries to make its presence known in the crowded marketplace.
His says the big differentiator can be summed up in the tag line: No more bad dates.
Video is the main tool that Instamour uses to try to carry out such a lofty promise. Users of the app create video profiles of themselves, thus making it possible to watch video profiles of suitors. And then users can engage in a number of ways of communicating with the opposite sex from chatting in a text fashion to taking it to video. In that way, Jason wants to save some of the heartache of going on an in-person date that goes nowhere. Before doing that, a video date can serve as a test run. And wa-la, he says, no more bad dates.
Next, a little history of Instamour and why the company reached out now, of all times.
The launch happened in September 2013 with very little fanfare. The idea was to get it out there, do a private beta for the sake of feedback and then tweak and improve. This spring was more of a push with Jason hitting up tech events. Then, this past summer the team was accepted into venture accelerator. That’s when the magic happened, in terms of growth, Instamour’s user base went from 500 to 10,000. And since the accelerator it’s topped 100,000.
Beyond the fact that it’s getting traction, below are five aspects that I think are more helpful in order to get to know the crux of Instamour:
1. The users themselves
This is an internationally-released app on the App store, so geographically there’s wide variety. The most active cities are also the biggest cities around, including London, New York and Shanghai. The Metro-D.C. area isn’t in this group but it’s getting some love, the founder tells me. Age-wise, users are between 25-34 for the most part, that sweet spot of particularly date-enthusiastic singles.
In the beginning the struggle, as is often the case with dating products, is to get close to an even number of men and women taking part. In Instamour’s case more males than females jumped on to the tune of eight males for every two females, Jason says.
The company took care to reach out to the ladies and customize features to their liking (more on that later) and now it’s a 60-40 mix.
“So for every 100,000 users women get 40,000,” Jason says as a way of putting it in perspective.
2. The cost is always free
That’s another promise the company makes (along with the ending of wretched dates). Downloading the app is absent cost and will continue to be. They want to build their numbers, so there are no barriers to entry. To make money they’ll do in-app purchases not attach a cost to the app.
3. Ladies are the absolute priority
So how did Instamour appeal to the fairer sex? By making adjustments to some essential capabilities of the app. First, no one can message until there’s a mutual match. This was the feature Jason touted to me, but it’s not really any different than Tinder or the other dating applications out there. In other words, a random message to a stranger takes at least the basic barrier that there must be some interest on both sides. Second, and more importantly, Xing someone out of your feeder and never having to deal with them again is easier to do than elsewhere, the CEO tells me, since there’s not a reporting process to go through. X him out and he’s essentially dead to you. Lastly, chatting is easy and does not involve giving away your number. But chatting means text messaging as well as an actual video exchange—all behind the veil of privacy.
4. The actual behavior exhibited by users
What are users doing, then, if they have the luxury of choice? I asked Jason.
Instamous has taken to studying these actions. And, in doing so, they found that the simple things—“pushing each others’ hearts (in other words, mutual matching) and instant chatting—are up there. Over the summer there were 1 million such exchanges, which equated to a combination of matching and the varied types of chatting.
Also, new to the app is the ability to comment on someone’s profile. Saying her picture is adorable. Jason compared this to the way someone can comment on a Facebook status and wanted to allow for more interactions. This is apparently catching on too, as 25 percent of users do this sort of commenting.
5. The clincher: Instamour staff use and love Instamour
This should be a given but I’m not sure it always is. Jason, as I said, is single and envisioned the product to solve his own woes. The rest of the staff is looking for some romance help too, and is reportedly finding it with their own product.
The CEO likes to tell the story of his VP of marketing, Kristin, a single mom. Kristin, as you’d expected, doesn’t like to screw around. Jason describes her as someone who has a bad date and cries. It’s not because she’s overly emotional but because, if she’s gone on a date, she’s gone through the trouble of getting a babysitter, getting ready, buying a dress and investing time away from her baby. If it goes badly it’s that much more frustrating.
With Instamour she’s able to go on a lot more video dates while her child is in the very next room. Then, if the video date goes well, she can feel more confident about the risk and time involved in meeting.
Beyond Kristin, women overall can have more control over the interactions and run less of a risk of feeling uncomfortable, unsafe or just plain un-wooed.
This, I can get behind. And it may be the reason why I’m now looking up Instamour in the App store.
-Dena