dating-app
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Allen Wang
Allen Wang is the cofounder and CEO of Ditto, a swipe-free AI matchmaking service for college campuses that plans real, in-person dates over iMessage. He dropped out of UC Berkeley after starting the company with cofounder Eric Liu - reportedly to help a roommate find a girlfriend before graduation. By early 2026 Ditto had grown to roughly 42,000 students across University of California campuses and raised a $9.2 million seed round led by Peak XV Partners, with Gradient Ventures and others participating, on a bet that Gen Z wants fewer screens and more real dates.
Renate Nyborg
Renate Nyborg is the founder and CEO of Meeno, a generative-AI app teaching people - mostly young men - how to build real relationships, which she frames as a fight against loneliness she rates 'on par with climate change.' She was the first woman to run Tinder and previously led Apple's App Store subscriptions in Europe and built Headspace's first international product and marketing org. Half Norwegian, half Dutch, raised across four countries and fluent in five languages, she studied philosophy at Cambridge in her third language. Meeno has raised about $5 million from Sequoia, Andrew Ng's AI Fund and NEA, and has pivoted from text advice toward voice-based practice scenarios it calls the 'Duolingo of dating.'
Soo Kang
Soo Kang is the Co-Founder and Creative Director of Coffee Meets Bagel, the women-focused dating app she built alongside her sisters Arum and Dawoon. A Korean-American designer by training, Soo immigrated to the US at age 12, studied at Parsons School of Design, and brought creative direction and brand identity to one of the most distinctive dating apps on the market. The company famously turned down a $30 million buyout offer from Mark Cuban on Shark Tank - the largest offer in the show's history at the time - and went on to raise $23.2 million in total funding with $36 million in annual revenue.
Tony Xia
Tony Xia is a computer vision engineer turned venture scout and startup founder who built his technical chops at DJI, AutoX, and Arraiy (acquired by Matterport) before co-founding Crema Social - a video-call-meets-food-delivery international dating platform that amassed over 1 million signups in 8 months. After graduating from a16z speedrun's Cohort 003, he became a Scout for a16z speedrun, backing pre-seed founders with $10K checks and a direct path into one of Silicon Valley's most competitive accelerators.
Whitney Wolfe Herd
Whitney Wolfe Herd co-founded Tinder, sued it for sexual harassment, and turned that lawsuit into Bumble - the dating app where women make the first move. By 31, she became the world's youngest female self-made billionaire and the youngest woman to take a self-founded company public in U.S. history. After stepping down as CEO in 2023 and experiencing what she calls an 'ego death,' she returned to lead Bumble in 2025 with a new vision: rebuilding it as 'The Love Company.'