Startup Idea 2: Matrimony Matchmaking
What started as an Instagram-inspired social experiment has turned into a startup idea. (Refer: Men https://grapevine.in/post/808462ef-8ae0-4269-aaa3-c683ba1194bb and women https://grapevine.in/post/6bcaeffa-0cac-44a2-98a5-fc7a14786e85 survey) Few observations: 1. Our generation has moved on from orthodox thinking (baring few people) to more emotional compatibility 2. Men have more worldly expectations, while women seek spiritual features; none are right/wrong as long as they find each other. 3. Very glad that no one 'expected' the partner to take up gendered roles as dictated by society So, coming to the matchmaking platform. The idea is to have all aspects of life considered - personality, profession, family, demographics, physical attributes, etc. and have a weighted scale against them. Though I have my doubts here 1. An Introvert will need an extrovert to seek them but will be drained of social battery later. How do they match? 2. Physical attributes pull down people who aren't confident with their looks; that doesn't relate to how good/bad they are as partners. But without pictures, it will be a risky surprise element. 3. Prevent parents from creating accounts on children's behalf. Probably a social media log-in Share your thoughts on the compatibility algorithm and the problems we may face. P.S. I am not a techie, will need someone to actually build this. Will take care of marketing. Let's help someone find their soulmate ❤️ P.P.S. If this takes off, I will change my username to TimaSaparia
Is it Shaadi season? Keep seeing posts about this these days. Where are my making 60l as fresher in Bgr posts at?
BiryaniEnthu
Stealth
a year ago
They are busy sulking because not enough monies
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LooseGoose
Stealth
a year ago
The problem you're trying to solve is quite a psychological and serendipitous one. Tech doesn't really solve for everything, especially human behaviour that's rooted in biology.
For starters, pics are super important. People want xyz attributes in people that look visually appealing to them first. Not the other way around, like how many assume it is or should be. Not everyone makes physical appearance top priority, but it is the top 3 for 90% of people.
Secondly, people tend to date around their socio economic circle mostly. No person matches with someone above their league (or doesn't sustain it) because people like staying in their leagues for the most part. Men will still date below their league occasionally but women will rarely do the same (hypergamy at play). Matching on the basis of that is much more fruitful but challenging since it's difficult to determine socio economic bg from pics or few pieces of information.
Thirdly, dating/matchmaking apps need to make money to be sustainable. And that goes against the objective of matching right partners in a short period of time. Monetization without returning/repeat customers is extremely challenging if not impossible for a business.
I would personally not recommend going down this path unless you ground your research in psychology and human behaviour. Even then, monetizing it is a challenge. Could be a hobby project maybe. I'd recommend figuring out a platform for platonic friendships instead, much more glaring need of the hour.
BiryaniEnthu
Stealth
a year ago
Why do you say platonic friendships are need of the hour?
LooseGoose
Stealth
a year ago
Because most (sensible) people are on dating apps to socialize and make new friends first, think about dating later.
Sad part of living in metro cities is you don't have many avenues to make friends as an adult. Social media platforms don't work, dating platforms don't work, random events/mixers/parties don't work either. New person in new city usually goes to Tinder/bumble/grindr to find people their age.
There is a lack of places and opportunities to meet new people and make friends these days outside of school/college or work.
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This'll work great only till one gets a match. But you can't solve chemistry with math.
The discovery / heuristics of finding compatibility is complex and is sometimes best outsourced (aka arranged), not because people are incapable of finding their match but because there is zero self awareness and often limited honesty.
So I'd say the approach is better than a Shaadi, but not dramatically better.
You could solve this for hiring, thats an equally complex compatibility problem.
BiryaniEnthu
Stealth
a year ago
Agreed and hiring is as complex. At least here both parties are willing to get into a match, hiring gets affected due to budget constraints, ghosting etc
As does matrimony. Gets affected by budget constraints, ghosting, etc.
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Willing to build the tech for this if you can explain why you could handle the business for this pretty well?
Why could I handle the tech for this pretty well? I can answer that in 1 weekend (2 weekends max).
BiryaniEnthu
Stealth
a year ago
are you looking for an interview answer - MBA, handled businesses of MRR $$$$ or an emotional heartfelt one would convince you?
P.S. If you do take this up, we got no money to pay ourselves. just highlighting
Sounds interesting enough to me. Let's chat more.
I understand there will be no money. I make and monetize (try to) side-projects too - most of them don't make any money. We'll make money if it succeeds!
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samosa
Stealth
a year ago
you are literally explaining jeevansathi.com, they are doing exactly the same thing
nobody_90
Stealth
a year ago
Been through the whole partner finding year I find these two hurdles to be crossed in your approach
1. How do you capture and show personality traits. We have very objectified methods to show looks (photos) and wealth(salary) and upbringing (caste). None for personality etc
2. As soon as we put personality traits on scale everyone wants to ace it. Introvert to Extrovert....everyone wants to be on good side i.e. extrovert. Everyone wants to be a travellers etc etc
BiryaniEnthu
Stealth
a year ago
First one we can solve. Second one is the problem
These prejudices have rigged matchmaking
OnADietCoke
Stealth
a year ago
Ah, so the other posts were market research, that was smooth.
It would be an interesting challenge how you would model the algorithm to quantify traits. Might need some iterations before it actually becomes something feasible as this can't exactly be mocked for testing. You guys will need an appreciable set of real users and tinker around a lot but I can see it taking off once it clicks.
BiryaniEnthu
Stealth
a year ago
Yes agreed , long journey
There are already enough matrimony portals, there are some unconventional ones too- those which arrange real meet-up between boy and girl.
BiryaniEnthu
Stealth
a year ago
Can you name some
@BiryaniEnthu UnShaadi on Instagram seems to arrange dates for the purpose of marriage. But I haven’t tried due to their paid nature.
Betterhalf.ai app started claiming to have unique feature of bringing matches of psychological compatibility after having done researches on psychology and doing AI modelling and what not, and now they are selling loans as their business model!!🤦♂️
Even Jeevansathi shows compatibility match percentage on profile and how many hashtags interests matches with the person. But many times even 100% matching percentage match doesn’t work.
Basically, nothing works in front of the traditional-liberal match that Indians want on matrimonial platforms, and also due to the highly skewed working gender ration. May be if Google, Microsoft and Apple comes together and launches some app for this, then only we can have some hope.
Umadbro
Stealth
a year ago
This idea could work, though i instinctively feel it would get caught up in a stated preference v revealed preference problem. When asked about preferences, most people state what they like *and* if socially acceptable. Men might be more free in expressing in an anonymous setting like this, but still no one wants a rebuttal about how their preferences are despicable.
Eg: when asked, most women would say they are on tinder/bumble to find someone for dating/marriage/friendship. What they don’t talk about is how they are also on the app for validation, feeling of being wanted, and/or casual sex, cos they would either be inundated with messages or criticized for wasting other’s time.
Bumble, matrimony, and tinder works to an extent that it allows people to pursue the revealed preferences without telling the world. It doesn’t work fully cos it does not match the revealed preference. If a 6 matches a 9 they will think 9 is their level and discard anything below 8, narrowing the dating pool. If you solve that you would have a dating app that actually works for everyone.
Are you planning to set a baseline for entry into your app,
expectation mismatch (of crowd)leads to bad experience for both parties You can't serve all from a single platform.
Example one buys a certain type of clothes form Meesho (lower tier) and Myntra has different types of stock.
While some men requires glorified maid and some expect an equal partner.
The skew of certain types dissuade the female users from the platforms, Intresting observation I had was very less numbers of lawyer girls in some of these apps and many more teachers.
BiryaniEnthu
Stealth
a year ago
Interesting observation.
But your question, we can have rating system. but some Meesho boys may want Meesho girls and rating system may skew their plans if Meesho boys meets only Myntra girls before
Really bugged me, do you have any suggestion?
One way could be having a hard toggle in UI,
likes of flipkart/shopsy or mmt/mmtluxe
can think of BriyaniMatchappClassic and BiryaniMatchappProfessional
then handle remaining case in matching logic.
If branding is off you'll accumulate majority of one type it'll throw off the other, app can't have all types to offer.
From layman user if
Suppose a business man starts looking in your app and only finds techie girls he'll be put off,
Or Some corporate employee sees only gharelu matches she'll quit.
But if you have dominantly only 1 type of men and 1 type of women it's better to restrict to that only rather than juggling expectations.
Pureplar matrimony app have segregated on broad demographics (iitiimshaadi/gujarati matrimony etc - these are seperate brands) that seems to work somewhat. But not truly helpful in modern context.
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StartupMinion
Stealth
a year ago
I was thinking about this a lot after your post.. here's what I thought:
Build an anonymous platform (like grapevine) where the boys and girls can chat without showing their identities.. if they have the chemistry, they can connect on their own and take things further. If not, well they won't know who they were talking to so no judgements and hard feelings..
People can put their personality features (introvert/extrovert, outgoing, age, etc.) and features they are looking for in a partner in order to select the person to start the chatting..
It will be like the Yahoo messenger of the 90s.
BiryaniEnthu
Stealth
a year ago
Good idea
I think they should ask each other out on these survey questions
But some problems
- no face, they can be signing for a rude shock
- names in India have caste, and it can be defining factors for some people (no judgements)
I am more inclined towards getting them married than fixing dates
Kuchacharakhlo
Stealth
a year ago
But what you are looking to solve different than existing products? @BiryaniEnthu
Product person here, interested in side projects
BiryaniEnthu
Stealth
a year ago
We are focusing on matrimony, not dating. Others have bots, parent accounts, less focus on relationships more on transaction and responsibility. Trying to change that
Most welcome, but once the prototype scales we will need to the team to expand
Kuchacharakhlo
Stealth
a year ago
Hmm okay
Is this idea in market research state now?
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Protector_ofd_realm
Stealth
a year ago
We are already building something like this.
Protector_ofd_realm
Stealth
a year ago
Key features: Compatibility, Standard, Verification
BiryaniEnthu
Stealth
a year ago
Can you explain more, or share your product if ready
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