How to build a strong community around your startup organically - the story of Loa's case

"The dating world as we have known it for the past decade is coming to an end," says Roni Makato, founder of Loa.

This did not stop him from building a dating platform and recruiting thousands of users already in the first year of its launch.

The story of an Israeli startup that grew up without sponsored promotion and with a sea of ​​love

Ditza Keren

20/07/2022

Wednesday, 20 July 2022, 17:01 Updated: 18:44

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Tell the story right, marketing executives.

DEM. (Photo: image processing, Yaron another)

The global dating app market is experiencing sharp growth in the corona era.

It is currently valued at about $ 7.5 billion and is expected to reach $ 11 billion in 2028. But when the founders of the dating app Loe decided to launch their product on the air, they wanted to do things a little differently.

It was clear to Loa that direct competition in sponsored catechism against dating giants such as Tinder and Bumblebee was a foregone conclusion, and they were looking for a way to spread Lua's gospel in a way that would reach a large audience of users but also connect those users to the company's vision.

All this, of course, in full accordance with the nature of the platform.

While most dating apps that exist today are focused on the amount of matches, which are almost always based on appearance and not necessarily on a real match, Blau realized that in order to attract the right audience they need to offer real value, emphasizing the quality of the matches and not necessarily their quantity. .

As a platform whose motto is deepening intimacy and connecting people to love, their ambition was to find people who are really looking for a meaningful connection.

"The separation and superficiality that apps and dating sites create do not allow people to really meet. Relying on appearance, quick marking of yes or no and multiple empty matches, causes users to filter out people who may be very suitable and could become wonderful mates, if only given the opportunity. , "Says Makato.

Accurate characterization of needs

The market segment that Loa was targeting focused on people who are interested in personal development and not necessarily dating, realizing that in many cases, the pain and frustration that dating apps cause users is so deep that they are completely discouraged from finding love.

For Loa, this is real emotional damage, and they have set themselves the goal of putting an end to the ghosting phenomenon so common in dating districts, which causes severe feelings of abandonment, loneliness, and a negative user experience.

Instead, they hope to create a supportive environment not only for single men and women but also for beginning couples who may not know how to maintain the connection and need some guidance from someone who can really help them.

Therefore, one of the interesting features of Loa is the ability of the user to mark that he is not available for dating at the moment, and still continue to enjoy the content and shares that the app has to offer.

An additional feature will allow users to match friends they see fit, which is also expected to strengthen the automatic adjustments based on artificial intelligence.

All this in order to strengthen the sense of support among users and create an engagement that is far beyond creating matches.

Experiences from the world of dating.

Those photographed have nothing to do with the article (Photo: Unsplash)

Personal sharing as an engine for growth

The original plan was to remove the content from the group after 30 days, but the flood of messages urging the company to leave the content on the air led Lua to respond to the request and leave it as it is.

To keep up the momentum, they continued to upload live on a weekly basis and encouraged team members to upload personal video shares under the hashtag #why_I_here_here.

In a direct sequel and as part of the lessons learned, the personal sharing options were also added to the app itself.

Today, Loa works in two main stages:

In the sharing stage, the participants have a discussion in an open face, in accordance with the interesting questions that Loa offers them.

Open-ended questions like "Tell about a brave action you took recently" or "What's your tip for a good relationship?"

Invite participants to respond openly so that others can respond to Blake or Emoji.

Users can mark the person they are interested in in-depth acquaintance, and when two people are interested in each other, they switch to private chat.

In the acquaintance phase, there is no image but an avatar character chosen by each participant, in order to allow users to deepen their personal acquaintance without the appearance being the dominant consideration.

To help start the conversation, here too Loa offers topics for discussion that users can answer via text, image or video.

An inside look at the Loa app (Photo: Screenshot, Loa)

Mass funding with community support

The involvement created among Loa users was so powerful that its value began to weaken in the area of ​​finance as well.

More than $ 1.5 million has already been raised from users for the benefit of the company, but Loa does not stop here.

A mass fundraising campaign will soon be launched under the title "Investors in Love", with the first phase inviting angels to invest amounts of $ 12,000 or more, and the second phase opening up the investment option for smaller amounts as well.

It is estimated that the app, which is running an experimental run and has more than 6,000 active users in Israel, has already created dozens of pairs and connections.

It is available for free download in Google and Apple stores.

Upon completion of the initial phase, the app will be officially launched in several cities around the world, including London, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, in a format that includes expanding group discussions, conducting workshops, joint events, mentoring, and later joint activities in the physical world.

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