This Tinder-esque Dating App Allows Users to Swipe Right Based on a Potential Match's LinkedIn Bio By invitation-only, startup The League positions itself as a dating network for 'high quality' professionals looking for ambitious partners.
By Laura Entis
Opinions expressed by BIZ Experiences contributors are their own.
Tired of being judged on dating apps such as Tinder solely for your looks? Wish your career accomplishments, accolades and business successes could be as prominently featured as your Facebook profile pic?
There may be a dating site out there for you -- although your career achievements need to pass muster first. Enter The League, a dating app that takes a Tinder-esque approach to matching users but adds a twist.
Besides just syncing with members' Facebook profiles, The League also links up with their LinkedIn profiles and incorporates geolocation data, so users can instantly evaluate a potential match based on what they do and where they live (looks, of course, are still a factor). Membership is free, but for $15 a month users can pay for the app's premium service, which offers complete privacy (no one can view your profile without your permission).
Having raised $75,000 in a seed round, the invite-only app went live yesterday in San Francisco. There are presently 1,000 members, all of whom are able to invite one person to join the app. Meanwhile, the waiting list is already more than 10,000 people long, Recode reports.
Related: Regret Swiping Left on Tinder? Soon You Can Pay to Undo It.
While there isn't a clear set of criteria for scoring an invite off the waitlist, job-credentials seem super important. Founder Amanda Bradford, who started the app because she was tired of wasting time on Tinder and OKCupid, told Forbes that she pictures a user base comprised of C-level executives and "people running teams of 300 at Google or Facebook."
Currently, 45 percent of members have an advanced degree, 28 percent hold a position at the director-level or higher and 20 percent are CEOs, founders, co-founders or presidents, Bradford told the outlet.
"We don't want to be Ivy League and we don't want to be just CEOs," she told TechCrunch. "But, I guess if you have to choose between superficial and elitist, I choose elitist. Any app that shows what people are and how they spend most of their day is less superficial than a game of hot or not."
Related: Why on Earth Does eHarmony Offer Real-Life Matchmakers?
