VarunSud

I'm Varun Sud, Founder & CEO at Juleo. Ask me anything!

Hi Grapevine,

I'm Varun, Founder at Juleo: The Trusted Singles Club. We are not a dating app, nor a matrimony app, but a Club of Govt ID verified Members who don't just match but meet fast!

I'm here to chat with you about my journey in all things startup, consumer tech, marketing, product and Juleo!

Ask me anything, I'll be back at 9 PM and begin answering! :)

2mo ago65K views

AlphaGrindset

Series A Startup2mo

Hi Varun,

What led you to want to build in this space? Also what were considerations when leaving a pretty interesting career to build?

VarunSud

Juleo2mo

Hi @AlphaGrindset! I was looking for a consumer internet problem that would lead to impact at scale, and nothing seemed to be a bigger problem than this one, and globally at that! Further, this space marries (pun intended!) the opportunity to build a highly profitbale business to create wealth for my investors and team mates, and also solve the pressing soceital problem of loneliness and touch people's lives :)

I was fortunate to be in a place where I could take a financial risk, and I felt I had gotten so much from the institutions I worked/studied that it was perhaps the right time to give back by dedicating the most productive decade of my life to building something that hopefully outlives me.

AlphaGrindset

Series A Startup2mo

Amazing to hear that and thanks for the reply. True the market is huge in human matchmaking.

One more if I can ask: this might have not been a personal pain point for you at the moment (going by your experience)

How did you recognize the pain point?

LetsGetLaidOff

Paytm2mo

Hey Varun. Glad to have you here. Can you explain with an example how is your platform better than the current incumbents and the OG rishta bhejna?

VarunSud

Juleo2mo

Hi @LetsGetLaidOff! We are fundamentally different from any dating or matrimony app out there:

We are a Trusted Singles Club where every Member is Govt ID verified and criminal record checked for safety
Every Juleo Member gets a personal Matchmaking Genie (virtual not human) who helps them meet Members who are their type. Genie is your friend, wingperson and coach in the journey to find the one!
Women's profiles are private by default and they choose to reveal themselves only to Members they are keen to meet. There is no directory of Club Members
Men only spend time and energy on women who are already keen to meet them. No endless swiping or pressure of being witty on chat to get noticed - Genie does the hard work of picthing them to women Members
The focus is on not just matching but meeting fast. The Meet can be IRL or over video/audio via the Juleo app. There is an option to take a friend along, or even family if both sides so desire To sum it up we are a safer, more efficient and more responsible way to find a partner without the mental health toll of incumbent apps.

VarunSud

Juleo2mo

@LetsGetLaidOff I missed replying to rishta bhejna... whats happening is that as large families of yesteryears become smaller and singles migrate to larger cities for jobs, the parents networks in their hometowns fall short. Further, human matchmakers remain SMBs because human networks are limited and don't scale like digital networks. That's why many people work with multiple matchmakers at a time if they are not comfortable coming online. We hope to give our Members the comfort of a personalized (virtual not human) matchmaker with the scale of digital networks.

DaringTrain

Stealth2mo

Hi Varun, Congratulations on your fundraising. Massive respect for founders in India.
Had a few questions about Juleo (Sorry for being harsh):

You keep women's profile private on the app. You have the option for keeping all profiles private if the user wants. Just curious, why women exclusively? Is men's privacy not a concern?
You mention if a person lies about their relationship status, BNS 318 and its consequences would apply. If a person lies about their relationship on the app, can they be prosecuted under this law? Do you think it's okay to misrepresent legal terms on the app? Was your legal team okay with this? What about users who falsely get comfort that people who lie on the app can be criminally prosecuted?
During the end of registration, you ask for either Aadhar or DL. Why are official government documents being asked? How am I being ensured that they don't get leaked/ misused?

Thanks

VarunSud

Juleo2mo

No need to be sorry @DaringTrain, these are very important Qs that I'm glad you asked

We are following what users told us when we did our research. We found that women cared about putting themselves out there, but men less so. That said there isn't a directory of Male Members either, the Genie selectively shares men's profiles with women who are his type. Now this system works great for men too because they only spend time and energy on women who have already expressed an interest in them
It was indeed our lawyers who suggested we add this, so disagree that we are misrepresenting legal terms as the law is there for anyone to read. If someone is lied to on the app BNS 318 let's them lodge a case
We get name and DOB from the Govt ID to ensure that no one can fake identity and age, and keep the Club clean. You have the option of sharing this information safely via Govt of India's Digilocker where we don't get the id/id no. itself, just the particulars from Digilocker with your consent. We are GDPR, CCPA complaint and ISO certified post a thorough audit, and hold ourselves to a high bar on data security and privacy

devdos

Microsoft2mo

Hey Varun, why do you think Bumble and Hinge are failing to do what they're supposed to do?

VarunSud

Juleo2mo

Thanks for your Q @devdos!

3 reasons these apps are failing users:

People match but don't end up meeting in real life [2 out of 3 users of dating & matrimony apps amongst a sample of 1000 survyed by YouGov said they have never met anyone in person from these apps]
The apps are rife with scams
They have led to fatigue/burnout/mental health issues In summary, they are hurting more than helping.

Wanna know why? Indulge me in a little history lesson :)... Match.com was the OG who in 1995 visualized a dating/matrimony site/app as a public bazaar ie a ctalogue of men and women. Tinder came and added their super successful spin on the bazaar model, and Bumble theirs. However, the bazaar model has continued for nearly 30 years and is the root cause of the above:

Indian women feel uncomfortable putting themselves out there on a bazaar and prefer private matchmaking channels, leading to skewed gender ratios
In a bazaar everyone aims out of their league v/s being realistic (but human) and then gets disappointed
Bazaars give the illusion of there being choice and lack of success hurts even more
As someone put it: Both men and women are dying of thirst on these apps. Men because its a desert. Women because its an ocean, water water everywhere but not a drop to drink)
Bazaars (endless scroll of profiles) require a large no. of free users. That is why apps havent made verification mandatory because if they did they worry users will drop and they won't have enough to sustain a bazaar

Cadburychocolate

Bank of America2mo

@VarunSud business aside what are you doing to make society a better place ?

Cadburychocolate

Bank of America2mo

@VarunSud I guess you won't have answer to this?

VarunSud

Juleo2mo

@Jackma apologies for the late reply, I absolutely do

As an entreprenuer am creating jobs, something our society needs
And by building a product that combats loneliness, I hope to solve a key soceital problem

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