Why did you decide to start Gelato?
I got divorced a couple of years ago and found myself on dating sites
that I felt could be so much better. About the same time, I started
using Twitter. I found that if I followed somebody on Twitter for a
couple of weeks that I really got to know them. I knew their schedule,
what they complained about and what they liked.
I wanted that type of experience on a dating site, so I started building Gelato about a year ago.
What would I do first upon arriving at the site?
We don’t ask for email addresses or passwords. You sign in with either
your Facebook or Twitter login. Next, you have an option to import what
you want from, say, your Facebook profile, whether it’s your
relationship status, your profile picture, the books that you like,
etc. This forms the basis of your Gelato profile. You can also sync
your Gelato profile with accounts on Twitter, Netflix, Flickr and more.
Are you partnering with Facebook, Twitter and these other sites directly?
All of these sites have application interfaces, or APIs, which allow you to integrate this user information.
Why did you decide to merge Gelato with content from various social networking sites?
The problem that I found on other dating sites was that it took a long
time to create a profile. Despite having to write a lot of information,
many of the profiles still sounded the same. We all like long walks on
the beach and to have a good time. I wanted to make it easy to create a
profile on Gelato.
For instance, instead of just writing about my favorite movies, I
can also show you what I’ve rented at Netflix. That tells you more, and
it gives you a richer view of what kind of movies I like.
Second, I wanted Gelato’s profiles to be more authentic. We’ve all
heard of people fibbing on their profile. Gelato pulls information from
the stuff you’re doing on Twitter or Flickr, so it’s more authentic.
You get a better idea of who I really am.
How do you plan to grow Gelato’s membership base in the months to come?
We launched this fall at the Demo Conference in San Diego. We have less
than 5,000 users. We’re not focused on growth right now. I still need
to understand the metrics of the site, what users are doing, how long
they’re staying and how long until they’re coming back.
How will Gelato make money down the road?
I don’t think that we’re going to have advertisements. The way Gelato
will make money is a premium option. So for some amount, say $10 a
month, you’ll get additional features like analytics — who has viewed
your account, how long they stayed, real-time alerts and more.
Tell me more about the real-time alerts feature.
With a premium account, I can create an online alert to ping me on my
phone or email if someone signs on who is, for example, a woman 30 to
40, non-smoker in Austin, Texas who mentions World of Warcraft in her
profile.
Who are some of Gelato’s backers?
I’ve been the sole backer. The great thing is you can build a site for
less than $100,000 these days. We’re not at the point yet where we’re
ready to take on additional capital.
There are hundreds of online dating sites. Why should singles pick Gelato?
Gelato helps you find others who share your specific interests and
present yourself in a more authentic manner. If two people are
authentic, you have the basis for a good connection.
What is your goal for the site over the next year?
The next big feature we will be releasing is recommendations and
compatibility. We have a lot of interesting data about who you are. We
plan to leverage that and be able to show you other people that are
compatible with you.
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