Brooklyn Entrepreneur Turns Dating Mishap Into World's First Event-Based Dating App

BROOKLYN, N.Y., Jan. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Swoonbox is the world's first event-based dating mobile app, with integrations into TicketMaster, TicketNetwork, Spotify, and Fandango. After a summer running a successful private beta of 3000 users in New York City, Swoonbox is gearing up to launch its public beta in the App Store and Play Store in Q1 2019.

For more information on the launch, and to enter their all-expenses paid Coachella giveaway, visit https://www.swoonbox.com.

The idea was first conceived after co-founder Lester Leong won tickets to the Great GoogaMooga, an exclusive Brooklyn food and music festival. Though the event was highly coveted, Lester's date cancelled on him at the last minute, leaving him with a spare ticket and no viable options.

"I watched the value of these tickets drop to zero because no one knew they were available. I couldn't understand why it was so hard to find someone who would go with the same passion and interest - that's when the lightbulb went off," Lester recalls.

Unwilling to go alone, yet unable to give away his tickets hours before the event, he redirected his frustration to solving a chicken-and-egg problem: dating without an agenda, and attending an event without a date. After spending a year developing the prototype, Lester joined forces with Glitnir Ticketing alumni Bryan Gray, along with its co-founders Gordon Krstacic and Bill McLean, to officially co-found Swoonbox. Since then, the team has formed key partnerships with notable industry players. Swoonbox has been accepted into the highest tier of the Google Cloud for Startups Program for promising cloud-native startups with high growth potential.

"The reality is, 75% of dating app users never go on dates, and 97% of in-app conversations don't lead to real dates either. Millennials are swiping so much, they've become immune to making real connections." Swoonbox CEO Bryan Gray quips. " By making great date ideas the focal point, we're putting the focus on going from online to offline as quickly as possible. It changes everything when you start with date ideas that you already know you'll both love. With our global ticketing partners you can get matched and get tickets for just about any event you're into."

The app uses proprietary deep learning algorithms to enable users to make real connections, over events that matter to them. Users can upload their existing tickets - or purchase tickets directly in-app - and uncover like-minded matches to go with. Since conversations on Swoonbox revolve around specific events from the start, users are encouraged to meet up in real life, instead of getting "stuck" with pages full of unrealized matches and conversations that are left to expire on the cutting room floor.

To gear up for the launch, Swoonbox is looking to supplement its raise through Kickstarter, where pledging will give users 10% off the price of 100,000+ events the app provides tickets to, for a period of time depending on how much is pledged. By entering, users are also automatically signed up for a chance to win a free all-expenses-paid trip to Coachella this upcoming spring. For more news on their Kickstarter promotion, visit https://www.swoonbox.com and sign up to receive updates.

SOURCE Swoonbox

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http://www.swoonbox.com