Disillusioned with the investment banking world, Brown University graduate Brendan Alper ditched his associate role at Goldman Sachs in New York and planned on moving to Los Angeles to make it as a comedy writer.
Hater, a four-month-old dating app, takes the idea of swiping to a new level: by matching potential love interests based on common dislikes. You, too, can find someone who is equally incensed by cargo shorts or can’t stand Game of Thrones.
Despite its initial comedic value, Alper seriously began toying around with how this app might actually work and how the platform would function. All of a sudden, what started as a comedy bit, became a business. Hater was born.
Hater is the newest in a long line of young start-ups attempting to capitalize on the fast-growing market of young adults looking for love on their phones. However, the new app has a different approach to matchmaking.
“Instead of swiping on people, you swipe on topics. There are around 3000 topics on the app and they range on everything from Donald Trump to slow walkers,” said Alper. “You can say whether you like, dislike, love or hate them and there are percentages of how many people in the world agree with you.”
These swipes all contribute to data that is being built about you and being compared with other users. Alper sees this as one of Hater’s greatest strengths.
“With Tinder, you’re making a decision based off of their pictures, it’s very limited information,” he said. “With this, you’re filling out a profile but it feels like you’re just playing a game, really you can see a lot of interesting, intimate data about people and use that to make a decision on whether or not you want to pursue them or start a conversation with them.”
That’s why it’s driven by the content it can provide users: Hater is more than a simple meet-up app, it’s an experience you can share with others.
While working on his writing part-time, the idea for a new dating app came to him-as a joke
After you match with people, there are games you can play together that act as ice breakers. All of the content you interact with is meant to be a part of the personality profile you build and can enable you to enhance any preliminary connection you make.
When the app was finally launched in February this year, it was surrounded by an unbelievable level of hype. Hater hit it big with ad campaigns featuring an image of President Trump and Vladimir Putin engaging in some amorous behavior, projected onto buildings in New York and L.A. Now, just a few months since its release, the startup has seen its user-ship swell to 400,000.
“It started to leak out to the press prematurely and before we knew it, it spread virally all around the world,” Alper said.
With the rise of apps like Tinder and Bumble, Hater had to find a niche in a es
Hater has also caught the eye of major investors. The app closed its first seed funding round in ount or the source, they say it’s from “executives of one of the world’s biggest (most profitable) gaming companies in the world.”
Despite the hype, Alper concedes that he is attempting to enter an already saturated market, but he is determined that his visions and ideas will allow Hater to be a unique and prominent part of the dating app industry. The success stories have already indicated this could be the case.
“A couple found each other on Hater and found out they both hated the Superbowl and loved Queso dip, so they got together during the Superbowl, didn’t watch the Superbowl, watched a movie and made Queso dip together,” Alper said.
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After its splashy launch, Alper is keen to “keep his head down” and work on growing the product and the content it allows its users to swipe on.
“Soon you’ll be able to swipe on funny GIFs, articles, restaurants, songs, not just things that we’re choosing but things the users themselves are submitting,” said Alper.
When Hater launches on Android in the near future, it will be up against thousands of other dating apps all with their specific tricks and services, so it faces an uphill battle to stand out of the crowd. However, with funding secured, a huge content push this year and paigns making waves already, it would seem this ‘joke’ could be the next big player in the dating app world.
