Dark Redemption - Charlotte Byrd Page 0,6

screen and walks through her presentation deck.

“I started the company five years ago when I was having trouble finding suitable men,” she says. "I found the entire online dating experience to be like a cattle call.”

Intrigued, I open my notebook.

“Everyone was out there to hook up, but I was looking for someone like me, who was my age, in my income bracket who was looking for a long-term relationship. I wanted to have children, but not right away. I wanted to travel. I wanted someone who had an interesting job and who was passionate about his career. And I also wanted to be the one in control of deciding whether I wanted them to see my picture or not.”

“Sounds like a tall order for a lot of men,” I say.

“It’s a tall order only for boys, not men,” Meredith corrects me and I can’t help but chuckle.

“When I couldn’t find what I was looking for, I decided to build it myself.”

"I really like the interface,” I say, going through the app on my phone.

"It's easy to scroll through, but instead of a profile picture, the first focus is on who the person is,” Meredith explains. “Each person is offered a space for a tagline that you can infuse a little bit of humor in or not. A place for accomplishments, such as degrees and career aspirations, goals, interests.”

I nod, scrolling through the profiles.

“With pictures, it’s all about looks,” Meredith says. “But in long-term relationships, it’s about friendship and love and passion. But people get so hung up on looks that they ignore the other things that can make their life very fulfilling.”

That’s quite a conclusion to draw for someone who is so good looking, I think to myself.

“This way there could be a little bit more forgiveness for people who do not look like supermodels or Hollywood actors, which I think tends to be the case with almost everyone."

"I couldn't agree more.” I nod with approval.

"We have over ten million daily users already and we're growing everyday. People are just finding out about us. We're focused in the Midwest, but we have had a number of big marketing campaigns in Seattle, New York, LA, Miami, and we'd love to expand to smaller cities as well. People want to date people who are in their geographic area, so it's very important that we enroll as many people as possible."

"And what is your payment structure?"

"Well, the site is initially free to use, but in order to contact anyone, you do have to sign up. There's a free trial and after that it is $19.99 a month."

"Wow, that seems a little steep,” I say, hearing something that gives me pause for the first time in this presentation.

"That's on purpose. We really only want to enroll people who are serious about finding someone,” Meredith says.

"And what happens when they do…find someone? Don't they leave?"

"Yes, they do, but that's why we're expanding all the time. We've been through several rounds of investment and we’re growing."

"And what's your end play here?” I ask.

"Well, as with any startup, the eventual goal is to sell to a larger company, but I don't want to do that."

I sit back in my chair. I'm a little bit surprised.

She’s right. We do not like to hear CEOs saying that they will never sell because the whole point of investing is that the company sells to a bigger player in the market and we all cash out big.

"Okay, I can see by the expression on your face that you're clearly concerned," Meredith says, "but hear me out."

She sits down in the chair right next to me.

"There's a lot of great and not so great dating apps out there and I'm sure that if we get big enough, we'll get an offer. But ideally, we can provide enough returns to the investors that we won’t have to sell."

"And how's that?” I ask. “I mean, the monthly fee is only going to cover so much."

"With a platform set up the way it is, there's a lot of opportunities to expand."

“How’s that?”

"The aim of the app is to help people into happy relationships long term, so we really want to continue that relationship going forward. If they meet on our site, maybe they'll use our recommendations for wedding venues or maybe even expand into advertising certain services for the wedding industry and beyond, babies, that kind of thing. Digital advertising can be very effective as you know in certain market segments."

"Actually, I'd argue that digital