This generation of 20-somethings is so disillusioned with swipe-based dating apps that they’re literally willing to try something else. Even if it’s an AI matchmaker. After dropping out of the University of California, Berkeley, Ditto co-founders Allen Wang and Eric Liu set out to build something that would help co-workers connect without spending hours each week navigating messy apps like Tinder or Hinge.
“As Gen Z ourselves, we’ve seen a behavioral shift in how people connect with each other,” Wang told TechCrunch. “We find that people are tired of endless swiping and endless chit-chat and really want something more authentic in real life.”
Instead of a generic app, college students can sign up for Ditto by texting a specific iMessage number and code. The AI chatbot then introduces itself. Ditto: “It’s a dating initiative built by college students who understand this…no swipes or nasty DMs, just real dates every Wednesday at 7pm.”
Users send text messages through the onboarding process, starting with basic biographical information such as name, gender, and date of birth. Ditto then begins asking more specific questions to understand the other person’s personality, interests, and dating preferences. Some users even upload photos of their favorite celebrities to help the AI recognize the type of person they are dealing with.
Similar algorithms do not try to match people based on similar hobbies or interests, but rather on what those hobbies and interests say about the person.
“If this man is into rock climbing, skydiving, and outdoor sports, and this woman is into hip-hop, streetwear, and skateboarding, you know that on the surface those hobbies may not be similar, but deep down, they’re both very adventurous and probably very individualistic,” Wang said. “In fact, that’s the core reason why people find compatibility with each other, so basically our argument is that chemistry is actually predictable if you have the right signals.”
Then, every Wednesday at 7pm, Ditto will message users with that week’s match results.
“It comes with a partner, it comes with a time, it comes with a location. Users just show up, date each other, and come back. We collect more feedback on dates, understand more about users, and send them out on better next dates,” Wang said. “Right now, people’s goal is actually to go out and see each other. So it’s actually removing a lot of friction for users. So they just go out there and meet whoever they want because we’re doing the heavy lifting for them.”
Ditto has 150,000 subscribers, and Wang says that of all matches connected through Ditto, about 20% of the matches ultimately lead to a date. (If this percentage seems low, you’ve probably never used Tinder.)
Similarly, they create collage-like graphics to introduce users to each other and explain why they are a good match. It’s a popular aesthetic among Gen Z, and one that other young founder connection apps like Sonder are gravitating toward.
With any dating app, especially one that minimizes the time between matching and going out, it can be difficult to gauge how safe a situation is. Is the person you are meeting really the person they say they are? Currently, Ditto is only available at a few dozen universities, but it has a built-in verification process to help you know that someone with an .edu email is a student at your university. Similarly, we are focused on finding ways to safely scale while growing beyond more schools and ultimately universities. This is a difficult endeavor, even for the most established and well-funded dating apps. But it has $9.2 million in seed funding to work with from investors including Ditto, Gradient, Peak XV, and Scribble.
“Ninety-nine percent of our investors have contacted us via inbound, because we’ve had a pretty big presence on LinkedIn and Twitter for a little while. Even Severin[Hacker]the co-founder of Duolingo, contacted me and said, ‘Hey, I love your mission. I really like your work. Let’s hop on the phone,'” Wang said.
Ditto, it was able to establish this notoriety through irreverent marketing, including videos of robot stunts. Currently, San Francisco-based Ditto has 12 full-time employees, but also hires a “chief yacht officer” to host promotional parties (yes, this is a legitimate job posting).
“Our users are college students who can smell a company’s marketing from a mile away,” Wang said. “But the stunt is at the top of the funnel, not the product. It’s the viral moment that captures college students’ attention. A good first date is what makes them stay.”
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