Blink: The Dating App That Lets You Stop Swiping & Start Dating
Interview with Taly Matiteyahu, CEO of Blink
Tell us about Blink. What do you do?
Blink schedules members for virtual blind speed dates so people can stop swiping and start dating. Our mission is to enable members to create real connections without the influence of assumptions based on physical traits. Because dating should be about who we are, not just what we look like.
What is your startup’s origin story?
I came up with the concept for Blink back in 2012, after I ate at a blackout restaurant and befriended a couple I dined with. It was incredible to realize how much more open and vulnerable we were willing to be while we were just voices in the dark. There’s so much power in connecting with someone when you aren’t subconsciously making conclusions about who they are based on what they look like… or worrying about what they might be thinking about you based on what you look like. When we first envisioned Blink, we planned to host live speed dating events where you couldn’t see the other party during your dates and physical attraction would be accounted for via rating by email after the event. My co-founder and I first connected about the idea in February of this year and made plans to get together to figure out logistics. Come March, COVID-19 hit and everyone was working from home, so we pivoted to virtual blind speed dating events… and the rest evolved from there!
Had you been involved in the industry before this startup? What is your background?
I hadn’t been involved in the dating industry before Blink. I’m a lawyer by education. I spent about a year and a half practicing law before leaving practice for a position in legal operations, which enabled me to apply technology to automate legal processes and make my teams more efficient. Fast forward three years and I’m now a proud “recovering lawyer” who works as a product manager for a legal tech startup during the day and hustles to launch Blink at night.
What’s unique about your company? What are the key differentiators between you and other players?
Unlike other dating apps, Blink allows members to move beyond a looks-first approach to meeting potential partners, setting them up on virtual blind speed dates so they can make real connections. We believe that the “one” might not be the person you’re immediately or most attracted to… and that seeing that might mean… well, not seeing. Most dating apps have a simple “swipe right for yes” and “swipe left for no” structure. Users scroll through photos and profiles and make snap judgments about whether or not they’d be interested in a person. By contrast, Blink has a two part matching process, comprised of a Blink Date (10 minute virtual blind speed date) and a Glance (seeing nameless & profile-less photos). Based on members’ availability, Blink schedules members for Blink Dates with potential matches. After the date, each member evaluates the date to let us know how it went. Since we know love isn’t blind and that physical attraction is important, our Glances feature gives members the ability to see potential matches’ photos… but without names or profiles (so members won’t know who they’ve had a Blink Date with). Blink only matches people based on mutual positive feedback from both the Blink Date and Glances interactions. This two part matching system, which emphasizes chemistry through conversation, helps members move beyond mindless swiping and marathon message.
Take us through a day in your life. What does the typical day look like?
I’m working a full time job in addition to building Blink, so my days are split between jobs! After I finish my day job (at whatever time that may be), I turn to working on Blink. I don’t actually think there is a “typical” day… whether it’s meeting with our developer or testing our alpha build, creating our website, engaging on social media, creating Instagram posts, drafting press releases, researching competitors, trying to figure out marketing restrictions, or drafting legal agreements… every day is different. But that’s one of the best parts about starting your own company — you get to do and learn so much!
What has been the most challenging part of growing your company?
Getting Blink off the ground as a non-technical founder with a limited budget is challenging. As we couldn’t build the app on our own, we had to invest the majority of our budget in app development. Now, as we work to turn to user acquisition, we have a much smaller budget to work with. It’s been our perennial challenge — we need users in order to raise more money (as we need to spend money marketing), but we need to already have users to prove out our concept in order to raise money.
What has been your best marketing channel? What are some channels you are looking to explore next?
Given our target market, Instagram has been our primary marketing channel. With that said, given restrictions on dating industry advertising on Facebook and Instagram, we’re unable to advertise until our app is downloadable. We’ve therefore started exploring alternative marketing channels, including Spotify and radio, in an effort to get the word out!
What apps do you use that you would recommend to others?
Starting a company requires so much to be figured out and so much to be done. Finding tools to help manage building your company is a task in and of itself, especially if you’re trying to stay lean and minimize software costs. I’m big on to-do lists, so we use Asana to stay on top of our tasks and make sure nothing slips through the cracks. We use Slack to stay in touch, Canva to prepare social media assets, and Planoly to schedule posts to Instagram (although we’re on the free plan, which means we have to separately post to Facebook and Twitter). We’ve also used Fiverr a fair amount — it’s a great way to find folks who can fill in gaps for you (e.g. create a logo or an explainer video).
Do you have a book, podcast, or Youtube channel you would recommend to other Entrepreneurs?
How I Built This, a “podcast about innovators, entrepreneurs, idealists and their stories about the movements they built” has been an inspiration during my journey building Blink. I have always thought of myself as an entrepreneurial person. Over the years, I’ve had so many ideas I’ve wanted to work on and so many businesses I’ve wanted to start… but in many cases, fear of investing my time, energy, and money into a venture that might fail stopped me from taking the leap. Listening to How I Built This and hearing the stories of successful entrepreneurs reminds me that, even for the most successful people, success came after failure… and that frequently, failure begets success down the line. Whether it’s the story of a female founder whose story somehow mirrors my own or the story of a founder who struggled for years before succeeding, each episode reminds me that success means trying, learning, iterating, and trying again.
If you could go back in time to the day you founded your company, what advice would you give yourself?
Don’t forget to Google your company name before you buy your domain or set up your corporate structure. We failed to do that with Blink! While we knew that other businesses used the name as well (Blink Fitness, Blink home security, etc.) and didn’t mind sharing the name with companies in other industries, we didn’t think to check whether there were other Blink dating companies. Months after forming our LLC, purchasing our domain, creating social media accounts, and designing our logo, we discovered that there were at least two other, now-defunct dating apps called Blink. Not only that, but someone else had trademarked a Blink Date logo in CA in 2014. Needless to say, we felt pretty silly for not having checked for other Blink dating apps before running full steam ahead. Lesson learned for next time: a simple Google search can go a long way!
What’s something you’ve learned from building your business that someone else can learn from?
You’re a founder? Be ready to roll up your sleeves and do anything and everything, including asking A LOT of questions (it’s ok to admit when you need help) and failing now and then (you won’t always get things right)!
