Recently, two Columbia University MBA graduates, Jon Budish, 28, and Tariq Chaudhri, 27, launched a new application called iWould. This application allows Facebook users to go through their friends list and select up to ten people they would be interested in. This list is then cross-referenced against those of their friends in order to find a mutual match. The application only sends notices when mutual matches are found.
The application is said to rule out the potential for rejection because crushes are revealed only if they are mutual. While the list of crushes is kept private, downloading the application is public. The application, so far, has more than 3,000 monthly users and is responsible for 163 matches.
Currently, the application is open to anyone on Facebook but the team is targeting their marketing efforts to eight colleges and universities including Cornell, Duke, and Columbia. In the past, dating based applications have taken on various forms across social media platform and have proven to be quite popular. iWould seems to offer a new angle as matches are solely based on your friend’s list. Issues of sustainability, however, are still present. In order for iWould to be successful, enough users would have to download the application and continue using it after the first few trials.
Overall, iWould seems promising. The company recently received a valuation of $750,000 from a private investor and may be headed for more growth.