Stacey Levine was a few months out of a near two-year relationship and was starting to get back into the dating scene. She felt exhausted having to go through the process of getting to know someone, just messaging back and forth hardly ever transitioning into actually meeting. One day, her co-worker told her about a new dating app called Bounce which helped users skip the small talk and go straight to the date. She liked that the point of the app was to just go meet up, but believes that if someone she matched with on a traditional dating app wanted to meet quickly it would feel creepy. Ready for the thrill, she downloaded the app and got lucky. Over the span of a few weeks, Levine went on two dates. On the second date, Levine matched with a guy named Justin. They really hit it off. The following week and a half after the first,, the pair went on three other dates and quickly became official. Stacey and Justin just celebrated their one year anniversary.

“We’re so lucky we met on Bounce because Justin is a terrible texter. If I had met him on a regular dating app I don’t think we would’ve vibed and likely never dated.”

Stacey Levine

This means less time looking at your screen and more time actually meeting new people. Inspired by his friend’s experience with dating apps of hundreds of matches but nothing actionable, co-founder Dylan Petro remarks sitting in Battery Park with a friend when he thought of an idea to be able to push a button and another person just shows up then you’d have a date.

“We want you off the app as much as possible,” says Petro. He finds that users spend max two to three hours per month on the app. For more traditional dating apps, users generally spend 90% of their time on the app while only 10% of the time on an actual date. With Bounce, you’re spending about an equal 50/50 the amount of time on dates and on the app. Right now, the app is only available to users in the New York City market with nearly 10,000 users.

“I believe the most important success metric now is how an app can enable users to get dates in quantity and quality depending on the app's audience respectively to a large user base. Dates are "the" reason why someone goes on a dating app and the contemporary apps haven't convinced the market yet. That's the reason why new players keep coming up. The solution now clearly is in the hands of finding innovative ways of adding value to the platform to get that metric right.”

Amogh Mishra, founder & CEO of upcoming dating app Candid

Unlike other dating apps, a user can’t swipe through other users profiles until a predetermined matching session facilitated by Bounce. For example, the app would advertise to match on Tuesday at 6 P.M. for a date at 7 P.M. So, if a user is interested in going on a date on Tuesday, they’d open the app just before 6 P.M. and select the neighborhoods in New York City that they’re open to go on a date in. At 6 P.M. sharp, the app would allow the user to enter into the matching session which lasts for 15 minutes. In this time, two users see each other’s profile at the same time. Either user has one minute to decide if they want to go on a date with the other user. If both don’t say yes, they will continue swiping. If they both say yes, then they will be matched to go on a date together at the designated time. The app then tells the users where in the city to meet at, usually a bar or coffee shop. There isn’t even an option for two users who match to communicate before their date. To ensure that Bouncers don’t cancel dates or no-show, Bounce has a strict policy that suspends users accounts who bail.

Even though the premise of Bounce is to get people away from their screens, Petro and his two other team members, his sister Laura and their friend Adrian, wanted to continue facilitating dating sessions during the pandemic. Once the team realized that the stay-at-home orders would be in place for a while, they implemented a virtual dates function in the app in just three days. Now if two users match, they immediately go into a virtual date video chat session through the app. Because many people in their member base left NYC to quarantine elsewhere, the Bounce team expanded their geographic range to allow members to keep matching. Pre-COVID, Bouncers could match if they were within a 50 mile radius of NYC to accommodate for people commuting upstate. Now that it’s virtual, they’ve since made that radius around 200 miles outside of the city to include basically the entire tri-state area.

Bounce is currently still in its pre-revenue stage as a business while focusing on acquiring enough members to make the app sustainable, meaning it generates no revenue. The three co-founders assume that it will take a while for the app to be financially successful, and they’re okay with that. “We want to get to a point where we can send out like 100 dates in a city on a given night,” says Petro. “Even from the perspective of businesses we work with. If they partner with Bounce, they’d be likely to see a real increase in business especially on off nights. So on both sides there’s indicators that this is valuable for people.” Although COVID-19 has halted the team's plans, now their focus is figuring out some combination of partnering with venues for referral payments for sending dates through Bounce and some sort of payment structure on access to Bounce and paying after dates, as in payment or subscription in going on dates.

The number of people participating in a match session depends on the time of day or year. Surprisingly, Bounce finds that the summer is slower. However, they’ve found that their moving average is about 500 to 1000 people matching at the same time. By looking at metrics, the Bounce team has found that people who put effort into their profile, 10-20% of people get set up for a date. For people who go on at least one date via Bounce, go on a date every three to five Bounce sessions.

Throughout COVID-19 however, the number of participants per session have decreased to about 200 to 300 people matching at the same time although they match at a slightly higher rate. They believe that video might be a lower risk for people to decide that they’d be interested in talking to someone, versus meeting in person. They’ve found that a lot of matches have 30 minute conversations while others have a 2-3 minute conversation, basically showing that they didn't’ really hit it off. They think the decrease is due not only to people being dispersed around the country now, but to digital fatigue from spending so much time on Zoom or working from home and increased emphasis on connecting with friends and family. Petro believes that dating is a headspace thing. If you aren’t in the right headspace, then you shouldn’t date.

"People are more comfortable with video communications than ever before, thanks in no small part to COVID-19, which has turned so many of us into video connectors. It’s very likely that they will since virtual technology makes it easier to interact with a prospect and to assess chemistry in a way that emails and photos don’t. Video truly gives you a sense of a person – their mannerisms, inflections, eye contact, body language. It’s not the same as being physically next to someone, but it’s closer than the options that were available before. Now instead of going on a coffee date or having an email or phone exchange prior to meeting in person, why don’t hope on FaceTime or Zoom and get a sense of your chemistry and interest in each other before making the investment to meet?”

Dave Singleton, teacher, editor, and former writer for Match.com.

“We really want to give people that moment. Being at home not really having a schedule is hard for a lot of people. The days blend into each other. It’s important for our members to know that when they can meet again, this is the app that’s trying to make that happen.”

Dylan petro