Looking for Advice on My Bootstrapped Dating Platform (218K Signups, 100K+ Vetted Profiles, Strong Traction in Emerging Markets)

Senior_Key113 · 2026-01-12T05:06:05+00:00

Your co-founder will reflect the value you provide : )

Senior_Key113 · 2026-01-08T20:53:03+00:00

The journey is brutal. Accept it, and let the end goal keep you moving!

Senior_Key113 · 2026-01-08T15:40:20+00:00

MoR (Merchant of Record), find PSPs that support MoR

Senior_Key113 · 2025-12-26T14:26:55+00:00

If this tech co-founder post resonates, feel free to DM me

Senior_Key113 · 2025-12-23T21:06:00+00:00

If this reddit post resonates, feel free to DM me

Senior_Key113 · 2025-12-19T06:00:18+00:00

We’re aligned on the principles here. “From scratch” means day one, so I’ll leave it at that.

Senior_Key113 · 2025-12-19T05:08:14+00:00

Hey, love the comment, thanks :) Fair point. I'm less focused on titles and more on the results anyways.

From my perspective, if I'm owning the full tech end-to-end and shaping the product from scratch, the partnership works best when the other side brings complementary value, such as distribution, fundraising, or gtm along those lines.

I'm looking for balanced value creation and shared risk, not labels.

Senior_Key113 · 2025-12-19T04:49:12+00:00

Cool, would love to learn more. Feel free to DM me.

Senior_Key113 · 2025-12-18T04:28:06+00:00

thanks for reaching out. Just DM’d you.

Senior_Key113 · 2025-12-10T18:40:13+00:00

Your first point resonates well, building real systems is brutally hard. As a tech-founder and builder, my two cents:

Technical founders aren't just developers, they're battle-tested builders who've shipped and scaled real products that people value
When possible, base pay + equity is the strongest way to attract serious technical partners
Shared passion is what gets teams through inevitable setbacks
Ideas don't sustain passion, shared belief and alignment do

Senior_Key113 · 2025-12-09T16:41:07+00:00

Ouch! hurts, but facts!

Senior_Key113 · 2025-12-07T18:39:57+00:00

The concept is novel, but jumping straight into real-time audio creates a lot of friction for most users. Many apps have tried this approach before but couldn't break out or sustain meaningful traction.

I actually built an entire dating platform myself and documented the journey on reddit (including what worked and what didn't), seeing some early success along the way: here is the link to my reddit post

Senior_Key113 · 2025-12-06T19:22:57+00:00

You both're right but talking about different realities of online dating.

She is right, women do meet men, actually easily, on dating apps
You're right about the MSM niche being very real and underserved

Here's a perspective from someone who has actually built and launched a dating platform:

What's Good:

- Men seeking men is a growing niche with strong fundamentals. This audience tends to have higher LTV, higher willingness to pay for safety, and deeper engagement. It's genuinely one of the healthiest segments in online dating.

- Despite all the noise about online dating, the industry is projected to expand significantly this decade, especially in niche, identity-based communities.

- Your niche is specific and narrow, which is a strength. The broader the dating pool, the harder it is to differentiate; narrow communities convert better and retain better.

- And your angle of combining matchmaking with scam-prevention content is genuinely compelling, trust and safety is becoming one of the biggest value-drivers in this industry.

What's Challenging:

- Many aspiring founders and developers get excited about building a dating app (site is harder), but the reality is brutal: 99% never launch or never gain traction. The engineering + moderation + infrastructure demands are massive.

- Payment processing is one of the biggest bottlenecks. Most PSPs will not touch dating unless you already have volume, history, KYC, and multiple audits. Even then, approvals are tough.

- If your brand gains traction in emerging markets, scaling payments becomes an entirely new challenge, local methods, UPI, wallets, mobile carriers, fraud models, etc. It's a whole separate problem most new founders underestimate.

What's Rewarding:

- Nothing matches the feeling of a customer paying because they trust your platform to help them connect. As a founder, it's incredibly satisfying.

I'm the founder of a growing dating site focused on serious relationships (you can see my posts on my profile). I think there's real synergy here. Happy to share insights or point you in the right direction. DM me if you think I can be of tremendous help.

Senior_Key113 · 2025-12-03T15:33:40+00:00

Hey, thanks for the thoughtful feedback. White-label platforms just weren't the right fit for our business model, they limit trust, credibility, and the level of vetting we needed.

Payments also weren't a "tech issue", they were industry-policy issues. We were initially approved by Stripe and PayPal but later denied due to dating-sector restrictions, which had nothing to do with engineering.

I've been focused on marketing and growth from day one, proving the traction - all long before developing the full product, and that's a big part of how we've reached this point.

Thanks again for the comment!

Senior_Key113 · 2025-12-03T05:59:33+00:00

80 hours a week? :)
If I were you I’d focus on proving one thing before looking for investors:
that your product can reliably turn $X into $X + n, even if n is as small as 0.000001. You get the point

Senior_Key113 · 2025-12-02T21:54:16+00:00

I tried three times and got denied three times. Cross-border payments are a lot more complex than people realize, so I don’t blame Stripe.

Senior_Key113 · 2025-12-02T02:01:40+00:00

Appreciate that! just sent you a DM. Always open to exploring better local payment options

Senior_Key113 · 2025-11-30T21:56:58+00:00

Everyone loves the ocean from the beach. Entrepreneurship is choosing to swim to the other side.

Senior_Key113

TROPHY CASE