Instead of people’s profiles, you’re immediately greeted with a meme set against a colorful, cartoon-like backdrop, with the choice to swipe right for «like» and left for «don’t like.»
After a certain amount of swiping, the app’s machine-learning model attempts to evaluate what kind of humor you like and your topics of interest, such as politics, pop culture or science. At that point, you’ll receive a “#MatchRec” with someone whose humor allegedly matches yours, leaving you with the choice to “Schmooze” or “Snooze.”
A few years ago, Madhavan was working in India and debating whether to go to graduate school. She cold-emailed someone who had attended a U.S. business school asking for advice. That first email led to more than 150 email exchanges filled with jokes and humor and, eventually, to marriage — as well as Madhavan’s conviction that humor is a good proxy for romantic compatibility.
Coyle, who has used Tinder and Bumble in the past, said Snack’s emphasis on video provides «more of a sense of this is what they actually do when they’re at a party or something, not just from a picture
“Meme-based dating fits so perfectly with this generation,” Madhavan said. “Because memes are the way we all communicate, right? Whether it’s sharing news or sharing how you feel.”
The 27-year-old Stanford business school graduate co-founded the company with college classmate Abhinav Anurag and launched the app as a beta test in early . It recently surpassed 300,000 users, with concentrations on the East Coast and in Los Angeles. (For scale, Tinder has about 66 million monthly users worldwide.)
“Now, best places to live in Miami for singles are you writing a longer bio? Do you have three prompts? Does the woman go first? “And that means you have to have your profile to be so curated, to stand out.”
When it comes to the question of looks versus personality, a dating app called Iris is taking the opposite approach to Schmooze’s — while also reducing the burden of self-presentation.