A USC student co-founded an app where a user’s potential match already shares at least one mutual friend with them. This is the premise of the dating app Cerca, which launched a month and a half ago.
Willy Conzelman, co-founder of Cerca, said while it was overwhelming at times to run a startup, he was fueled by his passion for creating a safer dating app, a passion he said started after a close family friend went on a date with a man who had been purposely targeting women on dating apps to harm them.
“She had to call 911,” he said.
According to the app’s creators, it was designed to be more safe, credible and exclusive than any other dating app on the market. Myles Slayton, a senior at Georgetown University, is the CEO of Cerca. He recruited his two friends — Conzelman, who also attends Georgetown, and Carter Munk, a senior at USC studying business administration — to join the team.
Cerca is a mutuals-based dating app. Users provide the app with their contact list and can then match only with those within the circle of their mutuals.
The creators of the app said this process builds credibility and exclusivity within the app, ultimately making the prospect of dating safer, given that a mutual friend could vouch for a match’s character and personality before a first date.
USC sophomore Karina Pink said she could “see herself and her friends using the app,” because the mutual friends aspect makes for a “more realistic pool of people.”
Slayton, founder and CEO of Cerca, said he came up with the idea when he was talking with his friends one night about how all of their parents met. Slayton’s own parents, he said, met at a bar.
“The average person in our generation doesn’t think their next significant other is that stranger coming up to them at the bar,” he said.
With that in mind, Slayton came up with the idea of creating an app based on already established connections rather than general location like most dating apps, such as Tinder and Hinge. Slayton also said while the average dating app is majority men, Cerca’s user base is 65% women, suggesting that the safety factor may be a draw.
Cameron Kalsi, a senior at Georgetown, was one of the first users to join the app.
Once Kalsi signed up with her six college roommates, she soon realized the app worked as described. She said when one of her close friends at Georgetown matched with someone Kalsi knew from New York, Kalsi was able to share her opinion on the match, which she called a “cool experience.”
“Being a woman on dating apps, it can be pretty daunting to go out with complete and total strangers,” Kalsi said.
It’s been more than a month since then, and Kalsi said her friend is still connecting with the guy she matched.
For some users, the lack of people on the app means fewer opportunities to connect with a new match.
“It can just be a little frustrating when it’s like five people in a row that you are just like, you know, ‘I know all these people too well,’” Kalsi said. “It’s like a ‘no shot’ type thing.”
Munk said the app has gained more than 14,000 users, about 10% of whom have upgraded to the paid plan, which is $9.99 a month, since Cerca’s launch. In the first two weeks, he said the app had already surpassed 1,000 matches. When it comes to demographics, Munk said 50% of users are 22 or older.
Over the week of April 3 to 9, the app averaged 162 new signups per day. However, since its launch, they have had days where the app has exceeded 500 new users a day.
Slayton said while they have been successful in monetizing Cerca through the premium subscriptions and the option to pay $9.99 per month for more swipes per day, making money is not his priority. Instead, he said, the team is focused on creating an innovative dating experience that they hope will become the main dating platform in the years to come.
In case of possible security concerns, Munk said users are able to decide who from their contact list they allow the app to access.
“If you want to block an ex, you can do it through the app,” Munk said.
For those concerned about the security of their private data, like who is in their contact list, Munk said the app provides security through its backend to help prevent data breaches.
Cerca’s business model requires users to have 10 contacts who are already on the app in order to sign up. Munk says that this ensures safety through maintaining exclusivity. If users meet the 10 friend requirement, the app asks them to invite their friends through a text message sent from the app.
A reporter for Annenberg Media tried to download the app but did not meet the minimum 10-contact requirement.
Munk said one of the main challenges was getting venture capital (VC) firms to invest due to the lack of data the company can present since the app only recently launched.
Munk, who also serves as chief of operations, said he became a co-founder for the app because he had been friends with Slayton for a while and due to his previous work on a coffee company with his grandfather. He had been working on the company for a year and a half and managed to raise more than $250,000 in investments and bring in $75,000 in revenue.
Munk, who said the company is currently working to expand into additional cities such as Miami and New York, said he would eventually like to see over 100,000 users on Cerca.