Successful Business Co

Interactions on popular dating app platforms today often feel transactional and dehumanizing. 57% of women report experiencing harassment on dating apps and that number is higher for non-binary people. Vibes' mission is to create a safe space for meeting new people where respect and authenticity is the norm.

We believe that Vibes is positioned to radically transform the expectations people have about the kind and quality of interactions they can have on dating apps. The collective eye rolls accompanying the "not another dating app" feel warranted as the space is crowded with options that offer virtually the same thing. But we believe that the space is in real need of an upgrade and we know that Vibes delivers that.

Vibes the dating app evolved out of an earlier product called RealTalk. RealTalk was a social app built by a small team of ex-Facebook designers that allowed users to have conversations using pixelated video messages (asynchronous, not live chat). The platform created a safe environment where conversations were substantive and intimacy and vulnerability were quickly established.

In 2017, it became clear that the best use case for RealTalk would be as a dating app. It soft-launched in the app store as Vibes in April 2017 with the intention of doing a beta. Within a few weeks, it was featured on the front page of the app store and a rush of downloads were spread out across the US and globally. The attention was great but dating apps require high concentrations of users based in the same geographical area. Vibes didn't have that. Ultimately, the team pulled it down from the app store to develop a stronger, more focused marketing strategy.

Knowing that the product experience was special, the Vibes team dug deeper into what we wanted the community experience of the app to be like. Vibes is set to relaunch in 2018 as a women-led company with largely the same tech platform but with a very strong and clear angle about respectful communication.

If you want to be part of transforming the dating app experience, please join us.