Two streams from the High Intent newsroom on one page. Long-form editorials from operators with skin in the game, and original reporting on where capital, product, and policy are moving in dating. No sponsors, no embargoes, no spin.
A new wave of products is replacing the swipe with AI. Most of them are solving the wrong problem. Here is why I believe they will hit the same wall.
Every dating product now claims to be intentional. Most have only changed the language. Here is what I believe actually separates the real ones from the rest.
Tinder and Bumble are scaling IRL events because the swipe is losing power. They are not rebuilding the product around context. They are using events as a retention tool. Founders who miss that distinction will copy the wrong thing.
Tinder is paying to get its own users off the app, and on its Q2 call Bumble teased a swipe-free future. That is not a product update. It is a confession, and it tells every founder where the next opening is.
Reuters reported that Bumble has hired Morgan Stanley to explore a sale. The read for operators is not that the category is dying. It is that a price discovery event is about to open the M&A window for everyone else.
Every few weeks, someone asks me to help them raise money for their dating app. After twenty-five years on both sides of the table, here is the honest version of that conversation, and why it is more hopeful than the headlines.
Original reporting from the High Intent newsroom begins with launch. The first feature will land here. Subscribe to get it first.
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