Voice AI Boosts Your In-Person Dating Success
▼ Summary
– Known is a San Francisco-based dating startup that uses a voice-powered AI onboarding system to learn about users through conversation instead of forms.
– The app’s test phase showed promising results, with 80% of introductions leading to physical dates, and the startup has raised $9.7 million in funding.
– The AI-driven process aims to understand nuanced user preferences to provide better matches and encourage real-life meetings, with features to limit lingering chats and ghosting.
– Known charges a fee per successful date in its beta phase and also helps users pick restaurants and schedule dates using AI and calendar integrations.
– The founders see dating and loneliness as a major generational problem and believe the market is shifting away from traditional swipe-based models.
Finding a meaningful connection in today’s digital dating world can feel like a daunting task, often mired in endless swiping and superficial profiles. A new startup called Known is tackling this challenge head-on by leveraging voice AI to facilitate deeper, more authentic connections that actually lead to in-person dates. The company’s innovative approach has already attracted significant investor interest, securing $9.7 million in funding from firms like Forerunner and NFX.
The concept emerged when founders Celeste Amadon and Asher Allen were developing an app for booking restaurants. They built a voice-powered AI onboarding system to learn about users without tedious forms. To their surprise, people loved talking to the AI, with average sessions lasting 26 minutes. This revealed a clear desire for more conversational and nuanced self-expression, leading them to pivot entirely. The core insight was that a conversation could uncover personal details and preferences that someone would never type into a static profile, details typically only accessible through expensive, high-end matchmakers.
Early testing in San Francisco has yielded promising results. Known reports that a remarkable 80% of its introductions lead to physical dates, a conversion rate far exceeding those of traditional swipe-based platforms. The AI conducts a dynamic, interview-style onboarding, asking follow-up questions based on a user’s responses. This allows the system to build a rich, multifaceted understanding of each person. One user’s onboarding conversation even lasted an hour and thirty-eight minutes. After this process, the AI suggests potential matches. Users can query an AI agent about a profile and, if interested, tap a button. Once a match is mutual, both parties have 24 hours to accept the introduction and another 24 to agree on a date. This structure is designed to minimize lingering digital chats and ghosting while strongly encouraging real-world meetings.
Following a date, users provide feedback to the AI, which refines future recommendations. The app also incorporates its original restaurant-finding functionality, using AI to suggest venues based on preferences and even helping coordinate calendars to schedule meetups. During its beta phase, Known charged a fee of $30 per successful date, though the company states it is still experimenting with its ultimate pricing model.
Investors are backing the team’s unique focus. A partner at Forerunner noted that Amadon possesses a deep understanding of the young female demographic, addressing unspoken desires that don’t translate to checkbox profiles. Amadon herself views modern loneliness as a critical issue for her generation and sees dating as a fundamental part of the solution. She welcomes the recent surge of new AI-powered dating startups, viewing it as validation that the industry is ready to move beyond the swipe. She believes Known’s deeply conversational model sets it apart from other new entrants and established apps that are merely adding AI features.
With a small team and fresh capital, Known is currently in beta testing in San Francisco with plans for a broader launch early next year. The startup’s mission is clear: use the power of voice and artificial intelligence to cut through the noise of modern dating and get people off their phones and into meaningful, face-to-face connections.
(Source: TechCrunch)
