Startups Swipe Right: Tech Powers Entrepreneurial Connections This Cuffing Season

Startup founders are looking to dating app-like interfaces to find their coworking soulmates.

Just as apps have made finding love a swipe away, a wave of new tech platforms is emerging to match like-minded innovators with potential co-founders, advisors and collaborators. Take, for instance, CoffeeSpace, a Hinge-inspired app built to help aspiring founders find the right partner for their startup ventures.

“We believe CoffeeSpace will change the nature of how people can find business partners, just like what Tinder did for online dating 10 years ago,” CEO Hazim Mohamad told TechCrunch.

Dating app models have proven popular. PYMNTS Intelligence research from last year revealed that 55% of Generation Z consumers and half of millennials use these apps daily. Further findings from the study revealed that, across generations, 27% of consumers engage with these platforms.

Dating app Bumble is providing a similar service with its Bumble Bizz offering, enabling people to swipe to professionally network with others in their area.

“Networking shouldn’t feel so hard or, worse, uncomfortable,” the company said on its website. “We’ve made it so you can make life-changing connections at your own pace, on your own terms.”

Despite the service having been around for seven years, however, it may not make up a large portion of the app’s business, as executives have not discussed the performance of this offering in any detail since the company’s going public in 2021.

Not all efforts to dating app-ify networking have had staying power. Shapr, a professional networking app that used a swiping-based interface and a matchmaking algorithm to connect people professionally, founded in 2015, was evidently shut down after its acquisition by talent management company Lincoln in 2023. The app is no longer available, and the webpage is defunct.

Dating apps, for their part, are gearing up for cuffing season, when single people look for partners with whom to spend the cold winter months. This phenomenon is visible in data — at least to an extent.

According to Tinder, the period between New Year’s Day and Valentine’s Day sees 11.4 million more messages sent globally than the year-round average for a timespan of the same length. It also sees 58.7 million more likes sent than usual. In this period, 2,263 pictures are uploaded to users’ profiles per minute. The first Sunday of the year has garnered the name “Dating Sunday” for consistently yielding peak engagement.

The allure of matchmaking is reshaping the way founders seek collaborators, bringing the familiar swipe-and-match format into the startup ecosystem. As platforms like CoffeeSpace apply a romantic approach to business networking, they’re capitalizing on the appeal of personalized connections in a world driven by technology.

However, the mixed success of previous attempts, such as Shapr’s rise and fall, underscores the challenges inherent in translating dating app dynamics into professional networking. Whether this trend becomes a mainstay or fades, it highlights an ongoing desire for meaningful partnerships in the business world — connections that feel less transactional and more akin to finding a kindred spirit.