Swipe left. Swipe right. Swipe, swipe, swiping is so 2021. This week's startup is taking a new spin on online dating — instead of swiping, Monet has built a network where your first move would be sending a creative digital piece to the person whom you are courting. Let's check them out!
⚾ The Elevator Pitch:
Nowadays, the general mechanics behind most dating apps aren't very unique. The premise is generally the same — find new people, match (or don't match) based on preferences from both sides, and if there's a match, connect. Generally, the preferences are selected via swiping or tapping a match button. Monet believed that that interacting just wasn't creative enough.
That's why they built a new spin to the first interaction — instead of swiping or tapping, they want their members to send drawings. Monet founder and COO, Joanna Shan, said "What's the fastest, most frictionless way to make somebody laugh? I think it's with drawing."
👇 The Drop Down
Site: https://monet.world/
Founded: 2020
Stage: Pre-Seed
Trend: Dating
Traction: 8,000 users in July 2020, 28.8% new dating users, 2,100 DAU, iOS App Launched, Android App Waitlist Launched
Team - UC San Diego, UCSB, and U of Penn Engineers and Designers
Joanna Shan - Co-Founder
Daniel Huang - Co-Founder
Jonathan X. - Co-Founder
🔍 Why we like it
- 💡 It's Unique!
Online dating has only become huge in the last decade with the growth of apps like Tinder and Bumble. Even so, the fundamental assumptions behind how these apps function hasn't been tested extensively ... at least until Monet. We think that Monet's entire approach to dating with their fun and quirky designs, to their keen-eye for the ease/'fun-ness' of their user experience will set them apart from existing competitors. If you want to check out their UI/UX, just play around with their website! - 📈 Explosive Growth from the start
This team hustles and they do it fast. The team started working on Monet in July 2020, and within 3 weeks of launch, they already have 8,000 registered members. Not only that, but they also grew a discord channel to over 1,200 members, and have a 25% daily user to registration ratio. - 🧞♂️ Gen-Z Unlocked
Shan says that "We've been thinking a lot about why it resonates so much. For a lot of older people, when they hear about Monet, they’re like ‘why does anybody use that?’ It feels like it's coming out of left field. And for us, we've been thinking a lot about creative, digital expressions of yourself on the internet: having homepages, and wanting to customize what your profile and your presence is. That's one thing that young people resonate with."
With the rapid growth of platforms like TikTok, it is very clear that the way that Gen-Z uses technology is very different from how non-Gen-Z use technology. Gen-Z tend to want more creative experiences where they can express themselves with art, media, and music. This is not as much as a priority for older generations who tend to be more utilitarian. We think that Monet has unlocked an important insight here, and hopefully they can act on it before, and faster, than their competitors.
🤝 Get involved with Monet
- Check out their website
- Read up on Monet at UCLA's Daily Bruin and Pando
- Download their app and try it out! iOS Only
