Never Miss a Connection with 'Cheekd'

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  Last week at Digital DNA, we got talking to Lori Cheek- founder of the Mobile Bluetooth dating app Cheekd. After the amazing talk she gave at Digital DNA we knew we had to catch up with her to find out more about Cheekd...  

  So what exactly is Cheekd and what does it do?

  Cheekd reimagines online dating with a new app that makes missed connections obsolete. Cheekd uses a cross-platform low energy Bluetooth technology, which fosters hyper local engagement. The app connects people in real time, versus virtual time. Connections begin in person; Cheekd helps you take the next step and continue the conversation online.   

  What kinds of people will use this app?

  Apparently one in five relationships begin online. The newly launched Cheekd is not only for the other four. Our app is for the billions of singles exhausted by the other swarms of mobile apps that are basically a mobile version of sifting through strangers online-- you never really know whom (or what) you’re going to get. Cheekd introduces real-life spontaneity to online dating.

  Where did the idea come from?

  In February of 2008, I was out to dinner with an architectural colleague. He’d spotted an attractive woman at a nearby table and scribbled, “Want to have dinner?” on the back of his business card and slipped it to her as we were leaving the restaurant. He left with a date. I left with an idea. After over two years of brainstorming of how to remove the “business” out of the business card, I launched Cheekd.com. Sporting pickup lines such as “act natural, we can get awkward later” and “I’m hitting on you,” Cheekd (a deck of privacy protected dating cards) coined by The New York Times, as “the next generation of online dating” introduced a personal approach to online dating by moving the initial encounter offline with a smooth physical introduction.   

  While the physical cards worked anywhere in the world and were a perfect way to break the ice, we found a few barriers; the main one being that our users were still quite intimidated to walk up and slip a card to a total stranger. Looking into alternative ways we could change the platform, we discovered a way to make these IRL encounters much easier and less intimidating via our newly launched Bluetooth enabled mobile solution.

  What has the response been so far?

  Our app has just recently graduated from Beta on the app store, so hustling to get users/ downloads is our main focus at the moment. We’ve started hosting happy hours around NYC where attendees must have the app downloaded for entry, which also includes a free cocktail. Connections on the app are immediate once inside the event so it’s been very exciting to watch the ice breaking app doing its magic for everyone before they’ve even had a chance to spot each other. In the interim, our newly launched app has been awarded the Mobile Week 2015 NYC Champions as well as the Data of Love 2.0 Pitch event since launch. 

  

  What have the challenges been in starting Cheekd?

  The financial struggles are definitely what I hate most about what I do. Coming from a career of making nearly $120K a year, living a pretty fabulous life traveling, dining out and shopping like it was my job in one of the most expensive cities in the world, I came up with an idea that I had to bring to life…  In May of 2010, I launched Cheekd.com. After finishing off my savings from my 15-year career in architecture, I had to get extremely creative to continue funding my business and this is where the financial sacrifices began…  I made nearly $75,000 by selling my designer clothes at consignment shops and on eBay, doing focus groups, secret shopping and by selling my electronics and other odds and ends around my apartment on Craigslist that all went straight back into my business.

  And finally, after four tumultuous years of building my startup with the wrong partners, lots of bad decisions and some major rookie mistakes, I was determined to find a way to take my business to the next level … and what better way than to apply to ABC’s Shark Tank. When I proclaimed I was going to change the population with my reverse engineered online dating business, serial entrepreneur and Dallas Mavericks owner, Mark Cuban, rolled his eyes, called me delusional and immediately snapped, “I’m out.” Billionaire investor, Kevin O’Leary, demanded that I quit my “hobby” and shoot my business—my passion– like a rabid dog.  After getting shot down by all five Sharks, I looked them in the eye and said, “Trust that you’ll all see me again.” Although those final bold words of mine ended up on the cutting room floor (adding insult to injury), in the 48 hours after the broadcast, Cheekd.com received a record breaking 100K unique visitors and our inbox filled up with thousands of emails insisting that the “Sharks” were “out of their minds” for not investing. A little under 50 of those emails were from interested investors. Since the Shark Tank aired in February of last year, I found the missing links from years before. We’ve raised 5 times the amount I’d sought on the show and I’ve gotten a CTO on board who’s helped facilitate and finance the new face and technology behind the new Cheekd. 

  Online dating is big business right now! What do you think makes Cheekd different than the other online dating apps?

  Our new app sets itself apart from other apps because it gives you the option to interact with a match before starting a virtual relationship with the compatible user. After setting up your page and what you’re looking for, Cheekd will then send you notifications when a potential match is within 30 feet of you. Instead of encouraging users to continue to hide behind a screen, Cheekd pushes you to engage in social settings while paying attention to potential matches in the area. Our new dating app gives us the power to light the spark face-to-face first and leave the talking for later. And because Cheekd uses Bluetooth, it doesn’t require an Internet connection to function. That means it works in places like airplanes and subways, where “missed connections” tend to occur more frequently.

  2016 is just around the corner, what do you hope for Cheekd’s future?

  Now that we’ve emerged with a new heat-seeking missile app which leverages the power of the virtual in the real world, letting you find other single people whom you may be missing on your daily commute or anywhere else, we have high hopes of turning the world of GPS apps and online dating on their heads! While most dating apps have their users completely engaged on the app, Cheekd, will alert you to “look up” and pay attention what could be the love of your life potentially standing right in front of you. We hope that Cheekd becomes “the IRL dating app”-- the app that makes real life connections.

  We can also do all kinds of cool stuff on down the line like creating a central meeting area (beacons) that can store all the encounters for the day effectively time shifting passes. Further mitigating “missed connections,” we can remove time from the fate equation. In addition, we plan on building an Android version of Cheekd and also implement a solution where any wearable device can also help make connections between Cheekd users.

  Cheekd aims to make the online dating process even more organic. We seek to push aside the inane game of swiping left and right and eradicate the layers of online BS forever…  Get Cheekd!

   

  Never miss a connection- follow @Cheekd & @loricheeknyc for all the latest! 

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