dateideas
A pioneering startup in Singapore’s relationship space, dateideas aims to make relationships stronger by providing an unlimited supply of exciting dates. With a Telegram channel of 50,000 members, it is Singapore’s largest community of couples.
The recently launched dateideas mobile application, which achieved over 1,200 sign-ups within the first 24 hours since the launch, is a one-stop app for planning and booking interesting date packages in Singapore. The dateideas mobile app was so well-received that it achieved #1 on Google Play Store (Dating), #2 on Apple App Store (Lifestyle), and #14 on Google Play Store Overall Top Charts – ahead of popular dating-related apps like Tinder, Coffee Meets Bagel and OKCupid.
The startup’s founder, Raimie Tang, believes this is only the start for dateideas, which has the long-term vision of empowering serious relationships and keeping love alive. This will be apparent in the app’s upcoming features, which will include tools for strengthening relationships – catered specifically to each couple’s dynamics and personalities.
How it all started
Raimie Tang caught the entrepreneurship bug while serving National Service, and by the time he entered university in 2017, he sparked the idea for an app for couples. The idea came from the observation that many friends’ relationships were stagnating, as couples ran out of things to do together. “We’ve accepted that after the ‘honeymoon period’ comes this mundane routine. But then I thought to myself, why should we accept that to be the norm?” Raimie shared. He was also inspired by his own parents, who managed to keep the flame alive after 20 years of marriage through simple shared activities. This proved that sometimes all it takes is a little effort into spending shared quality time.
Upon further research and with the help of psychology advisors, Raimie also found that the high failure rate of relationships often correlates with other social problems, such as juvenile delinquency, broken families, and depression. He envisioned dateideas as a potential aid towards strengthening relationships and, in turn, relieving some of these other issues. While most dating apps on the market focused only on the ‘attraction period’, he aimed to tackle the challenges of maintaining a relationship. With this goal in mind, Raimie worked on dateideas while simultaneously studying in university.
However, it was an internship at Silicon Valley during Raimie’s time as an undergraduate which further inspired him to pursue the path of entrepreneurship. “I realised they had a lot of guts to quit their jobs and work on their ideas full-time,” Raimie explained. Galvanised by this experience, Raimie took a leave-of-absence from school the following semester, during which dateideas grew massively, drawing in more revenue and increasing the community sixfold.
Since then, the team has expanded, with the addition of co-founder and CTO Arvind Ramesh, as well as over 40 interns in various departments such as marketing and business development.
dateideas & NTUitive
Another milestone for dateideas was its recent partnership with NTUitive through their participation in ideasinc 2020 – a nationwide startup challenge to groom promising ideas into viable businesses – where they made it into the Top 10. In support of the startup, NTUitive has also provided a $10,000 grant through the Multidisciplinary Team Fund, mentorship, rapid software prototyping services, outreach opportunities, and co-working space.
Raimie professes that NTUitive’s greatest help was its nurturing support system. “We’ve had support from other sources before, but the team at NTUitive has been especially personal and supportive – often checking in on us and guiding us, or asking if there is anything they could do to help. It is indeed assuring to know that if dateideas would like to collaborate with NTU, the NTUitive team would definitely do their best to make it happen.”
Raimie expects much development in the coming months along with NTUitive’s guidance, and is very optimistic about the future.
What’s next for dateideas?
The team is very clear about their short and long-term goals. Raimie explains, “In the short term, we have a lot of new features regarding personalised relationship improvement on the way.” In two to three months, the Moments feature will be launched, which focuses on the day-to-day aspect of relationships.
Additionally, the dateideas team is planning to expand into Bangkok in the near future. “We are redefining the concept of dates, to include accessible weekend getaways and to create unforgettable memories,” says Raimie. On top of unlocking more users in the wider Southeast Asian region, this will enable the dateideas team to create a unique couples community with a regional network effect: couples in Singapore will get to meet couples from Thailand, and vice versa.
Raimie is confident in the startup’s growth and direction for the future. They are on track towards hitting monthly revenues of over $30,000 by June 2021, which is when they plan to close their seed round. With a clear roadmap towards profitability and success in Singapore’s relationships space, the team looks forward to fulfilling their vision of empowering relationships with a love that truly lasts.
For investors interested in growth updates from dateideas: http://bit.ly/diGrowthUpdates
For merchants interested in joining the dateideas mobile app (over 50K users): http://bit.ly/diPartnerUs
