Smile — A New Way To Date
Harnessing the power of artificial intelligence and humor to create meaningful human connections that last.
The Problem
Dating apps are popular, but they’re not working. Nearly 100M U.S. adults have used a dating app, but less than half of them have been in a serious relationship with someone they met on a dating app. Moreover, the most popular dating apps today are largely superficial — users are making split-second decisions about people based on a couple of pictures. Internationally recognized expert on courtship and Smile advisor, Professor Jeffrey Hall, has conducted dozens of studies that have suggested physical attraction is a poor predictor of relationship success.
What The Company Does
The Smile team theorizes that humor is the missing piece of the puzzle. “Of all the dates I’ve been on, the ones I actually enjoyed, and the ones that ended up leading to a relationship, were the ones with guys who could make me laugh”, founder and CEO Melissa Mullen explains. It turns out this phenomenon is backed by science. Research has shown that there is a strong correlation between a shared sense of humor and long, happy, successful relationships. Smile is a dating app that matches people based on their senses of humor, and according to Hall, “this is exactly what we have been waiting for.”
Market
The total dating app revenue in 2020 was 3.08B. The projected total dating app revenue in 2025 is 5.71B. Primary competitors are Tinder, Bumble, Hinge and Grindr. Smile is different from its competitors in several ways: 1. Promotes meaningful connections, 2. Actively combats superficiality 3. Humor-based matching and pictures are blurry for the first 24 hours to promote emotional connection first and 4. The user experience is similar to a social media, in that the user scrolls through and reacts funny content and the AI system creates their humor profiles using this data to match them with people who have compatible humor profiles.
Business Model
Smile will be using a freemium model. The October launch will include only the free option, and in November “Smile Plus” will launch for $25/month for additional features like seeing photos immediately instead of waiting 24 hours, view humor compatibility reports, advanced preferences, dealbreakers, unlimited likes, see who likes you, travel, rewind, send messages with likes, set default icebreaker messages and hide ads. Other paths to monetization include in-app purchases like seeing photos immediately for one match instead of waiting 24 hours, view a batch of “comedians” — the most desirable users in your area and advertisements.
Traction
Smile is launching soon.
Founding Team Background
Founder Melissa Mullen is a single woman in her 20s with a vision to transform the dating industry. She holds a B.S. in Physics from Boston College and currently is a Computer Science MS candidate at Northeastern University. Joining her team is Amazon Machine Learning engineer and Ph.D. Francisco Garcia. Advisors include internationally recognized expert on love and humor Professor Jeffrey Hall, former CMO of RXBAR, Victor Lee, expert product launcher and former VC investor Betsy Ludwig, Google software engineer, Anthony Chen and Christopher Lustrino.
The Ask
Smile is in growth mode and would love introductions to potential investors. Connect With The Smile Team.
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