I put my shovel in the ground two years ago.
No app, no logo, just a name and a feeling. That feeling was honestly frustration, not because I got banned on Tinder or that dating apps didn’t quite hit the mark, that feeling was frustration at what I was going to do with my life, what was going to happen next, how school was going to go. Was my dog Roxy going to make it through when she got sick? Why is my life so hard?
Two years ago we took the last bit of optimism we had and decided to put it into something, that something was Bindr.
Sometimes when you do things, it’s from a point of blind optimism. I wish I could say that was it for Bindr, but Bindr was my “what’s the worst that could happen” moment.
Three weeks later we launched on iOS.
Four weeks later we had hundreds of users.
Two months later we had thousands of users.
Six months later we incorporated as a company.
Eight months later I won my first pitch competition and got accepted into my first accelerator.
Twelve months later I won my first Women in Technology Award and we had 20 thousand users.
Sixteen months later we had 40 thousand users and took on our first investor with Innovation Works and AlphaLab accelerator.
Nineteen months later we attended Miami Pride.
Twenty one months later we did every major city on the east coast for Pride.
Twenty three months later we had hundreds of thousands of users.
Now two years later, I couldn’t be more optimistic for what we’ve accomplished as a team, as a company, and for myself. I’m officially nominated for Forbes 30 under 30, I’m working on creating more charity programs for the community, and doing everything I never thought was possible just 24 months ago.
So when I say “do the damn thing” that’s what I mean, because doing something can change everything, even if it’s just a silly little dating app with a clever name.
We’ve had many doubters as we’ve hit each of those numbers, and our biggest advantage will continue to be the app that people underestimate.
We run lean, we run mean, we have an amazing team. Trust me when I say, we can build it faster than anyone before us.
Here’s to millions of users, check back in another year.
(Oh and users are signed up, active users, not sessions, not downloads, not impressions, etc. If we were calculating that we would have hit the million mark a long time ago, maybe we’re marketing ourselves wrong as we already do that monthly 😉)
