

Krush - The dating app - krush
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.krushapp.krush
Krush is your personal matchmaker. It understands who you are and matches you with compatible friends and friends of friends in a fun, safe and discreet way.<p>If the feelings are mutual, Krush breaks the ice and introduces the two of you.<p>Follow all the action on Facebook too: www.facebook.com&#x2F;krushapp
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onion2k
Does "big data" style network graph analysis of people's social circles
actually work to find people to date? Is there any evidence that the analysis
bit of online dating does anything to promote successful relationships? Would
simply showing people a randomised list of single people in their vicinity
work just as well? I'd love it to be true that it's possible to work out an
approximate level of compatibility using available data, but I've never seen
any real evidence that it works. _Undoubtedly_ online dating works; plenty of
people find someone to date online. But pretty much 100% of the time it's down
to the photo and the messages sent rather than anything in the user's profile
(based on anecdotal evidence of myself and many friends).

Interestingly, KRUSH could actually test their algorithm for this really
easily - just measure whether people message matches more often when they've
rated the two people as compatible. Unfortunately you'd have to not show
people their compatibility scores though otherwise you might be influencing
the likelihood of someone sending a message, which presumably would devalue
the perception of the product for users.

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krush
Thanks for taking the time to articulate this :) I just responded to lun4r
about why the proximity-based model doesn't work in the East.

We're not sure if there is evidence that "big data" style network graph
analysis of people's social circles works. But what we do know is that a lot
of relationships materialize between friends of friends offline.

Having said that, we used that as the germ of an idea for Krush. We have some
way to go before the algorithms are satisfactorily refined, but hopefully
Krush will be "the evidence" that you're talking about.

Stay tuned!! :)

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onion2k
Interestingly, and probably because I'm a liberal, white Westerner, I hadn't
even considered the impact prejudices (social class, race, religion, etc) make
on who you might want to date. I just assumed that everyone who meets a few
criteria and lives close by would be an option. To that end, an app makes a
lot of sense.

But at the same time, maybe using an app will reinforce those prejudices, and
that might not really be such a good thing.

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krush
Point taken.

The Indian market is saturated with matrimonial services and there are no
serious players in the casual dating market. Having said that, for now, we're
focussing on giving people what they want :)

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mathattack
As a married person, this does conceptually make sense. It's much better to
date a friend of a friend than a stranger in a bar. I suspect that there are
secrets in the network that could suggest likely candidates. (Just like people
with weak links to you but strong links outside your existing network can help
with job intros, they can also help with dating connections.)

When I was single, I just remember thinking, "There are so many folks online
that I would never consider dating." Something like this could have narrowed
the search down. Ultimately I married a classmate that was a friend of a
friend.

Good luck with this!

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krush
Hey, thanks :-) We're working our butts off and moving lightening fast to make
this happen.

Stay tuned...

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warrenmar
Reminds me a bit of coffee meets bagel except instead of a single match, you
get a batch. I wonder how facebook fatigue affects conversion. There probably
isn't another way to find 2nd degree friends besides facebook login, or is
there?

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krush
We're not sure Facebook "fatigue" per se will affect conversion.

The Facebook login is simply a tool to sign in regardless of your activity
level on Facebook.

The response has been pretty terrific so far. Over 95% of sign ups have
returned to rate their batch every single day × 4 days consecutively so far.

Give it a shot and mail us your feedback to rajat@krushapp.com

Cheers :-)

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lun4r
how is this different than Tinder/CMB? Also, if many of my friends have a
friend in common that I'm not connected with there is a high probability that
I know this person and decided not to be connected with him/her. Not cool if
my profile pops up on his/her phone (may be my ex who I've unfriended on fb..)

~~~
krush
I can't comment on CMB because it doesn't work here in India.

As for Tinder, the big difference is that it's primarily proximity based.
While this works fine in the West, the realities in the East is completely
different.

I'm a bit ashamed to say this, but the caste system is wired into every Indian
at some level or the other. This means that certain schools, professions and
ultimately people are perceived as being "above" others.

So, for example, it would be a big NO to connect a bartender with a journalist
just because they happen to be in the same proximity. Or a pizza delivery guy
to a law student for that matter. I went to college in the US and knew a
bartender who dated a journalist, as well as a pizza guy who dated a law
student. In the twenty odd years I've lived in India though, I have never come
across such a thing.

The reality simply is society in the West functions differently from the East.
A mutual friend being the core of your experience (as opposed to proximity)
goes a long way in connecting people who belong to a similar social
class/status and maintaining the quality of data.

There are a bunch of other things that significantly differentiate Krush from
Tinder. Give Krush a try for a few days and you'll figure them out :) But
thanks for your comment!

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krush
We are also working with some amazing facial recognition technology that will
roll out in 2014. Stay tuned :-)

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fruks
2 Girls like me, makes we want to continue using this app.

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krush
Haha, I'm on 7 here :P But my co-founder isn't telling me who they are.

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fruks
Went 2 or 3 batches but now it doesn't seems to be giving me any more. Just
getting the "Give us abit message"

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krush
Hey, we're thrilled you want more :) That message could be one of a few
things:

\- You have too few friends/friends of friends of the opposite sex

\- Available suggestions don't meet your criteria because they're listed as
married on Facebook

\- Your Facebook friends are primarily in a different city

\- Or a few other possibilities

Tried tapping the orange "Retry" button at the bottom? You'll have more
suggestions available the moment another Facebook friend of yours signs up for
Krush. Feel free to let someone know :)

Thanks for your interest, fruks! It means a lot to us. Cheers

~~~
fruks
I have about 250 friends mostly in a 100km radius and about 40%-50% female.
Tapping the retry button doesn't do anything

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notastartup

        Give us a bit
    
        We are busy putting together a new batch of perfect people
    

This is what I am getting on my first attempt just now.

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krush
Shucks. Sorry to hear that. It's probably one of few things:

\- You have too few friends/friends of friends of the opposite sex

\- Available suggestions don't meet your criteria because they're listed as
married on Facebook

\- Your Facebook friends are primarily in a different city

\- Or a few other possibilities

Tried tapping the orange "Retry" button at the bottom?

Thanks for the alert :-)

Cheers

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notastartup
that explains it I created a facebook account just prior as there was no other
way to use the app without a facebook account.

~~~
krush
Yep. But thanks for taking the time to check it out :) We appreciate your
interest.

