Innovative Algorithm Revolutionizes Campus Dating: The Rise of Date Drop
As Valentine’s Day approaches at Stanford University, students are exploring new avenues to find meaningful connections. One standout option is Date Drop, a service developed by graduate student Henry Weng. This platform pairs students with potential dates weekly, utilizing responses from a comprehensive questionnaire to ensure compatibility.
In an era where traditional dating apps often lead to frustration, Date Drop offers a refreshing alternative. Since its launch in the fall, over 5,000 Stanford students have engaged with the service. Its success has prompted expansion to ten additional institutions, including MIT, Princeton, and the University of Pennsylvania. Looking ahead, Weng plans to introduce Date Drop to broader urban areas this summer.
Our matches convert to actual dates at about ten times the rate of Tinder, Weng shared with TechCrunch. Instead of swiping, we get to know each person deeply and send them one compatible match per week.
Initially, Weng viewed Date Drop as a campus project. However, witnessing a close friend find a partner through the service transformed his perspective. That was when I got the sense that this was less of a project, he reflected.
This realization led to the formation of The Relationship Company, a public benefit corporation committed to balancing social impact with profitability. This started as something I just wanted to exist on campus, and it became a company because people kept on asking for it in their schools and I needed resources to do that, Weng explained.
The startup has attracted significant investment, securing several million dollars from angel investors. Notable backers include Mark Pincus, Zynga founder and early Facebook investor; Andy Chen, former partner at Coatue; and Elad Gil, an early supporter of Airbnb, Stripe, and Pinterest.
Weng’s vision for The Relationship Company extends beyond romantic connections. The long-term vision at The Relationship Company is about facilitating all meaningful relationships: friendships, professional connections, community, events, he stated.
The algorithm behind Date Drop is designed to foster long-term connections, with 95% of users expressing interest in serious relationships. Weng emphasized two core components: a thorough questionnaire capturing a genuine picture of each individual and a compatibility prediction model trained on real-world outcomes. We do that through the questions, open-ended responses, a voice conversation, and other data that the users provide, he noted.
Currently pursuing a master’s degree in computer science at Stanford, Weng has tailored his education around the economics and mathematics of matching. As an undergraduate, he created a major focusing on human interactions, matching theories, and incentives. I started to see how matching shapes so much of our lives, Weng told TechCrunch. Who your life partner is, who your friends are, what college you go to, which company you work for are all matching problems.
Beyond his technical education, Weng found an unexpected class useful for learning to manage a startup: Intro to Clown. A core principle of clowning is that clowns are failures, and instead of fearing failure, they revel in it, he said. As a product builder, your entire journey is just repeatedly failing and getting back up. Clown class was a wonderful microcosm of that.
The Relationship Company currently employs two additional staff members alongside Weng and collaborates with 12 student campus ambassadors. Emphasizing the importance of relationships, Weng offers employees a $100 monthly relationship stipend to invest in personal connections. Relationships are the single most important factor in a person’s life, he asserted. There’s also great research showing that money spent on other people makes you happier than money spent on yourself.
Weng’s dedication to understanding and facilitating human connections is evident in both his professional endeavors and personal philosophy.
