Founders of Makemytrip and Letsbuy now into matchmaking with TrulyMadly
In India, when the son or daughter is marriage-ready parents launch them at the next big family wedding, spread the word to their neighborhood aunty or sign up on an online matchmaking website. While parents and aspiring grooms or brides have high expectation from matrimonial websites available on the internet, fake profiles are a big issue with most matrimonial as well as dating websites.
Realizing the huge deficit of trust and transparency with existing online match-making solutions, serial entrepreneurs Sachin
Bhatia and Hitesh Dhingra teamed up with Rahul Kumar to launch TrulyMadly. It is a matchmaking website with thought, reason and emotion, sans the kinks of caste and creed. The platform is a way to find a compatible partner instead of skirting around dim alleyways. “The idea was simple. Find people who are looking to seriously engage and build relationships and give them a safe avenue to do so,” says Sachin.
Prior to launching TrulyMadly, Sachin Bhatia co-founded India’s largest online travel company, MakeMyTrip and served as Chief Marketing Officer for the conglomerate. He is also an active angel investor and advisor to internet and mobile startups in India and SE-Asia. Hitesh is a serial entrepreneur and angel investor. Previously, he founded and led electronics etail venture, Letsbuy, which was later acquired by Flipkart in 2012. Rahul worked as a senior product manager for technology companies both in the US and India, including MakeMyTrip and Expedia.
“TrulyMadly matches singles based on who they are, what they are looking for, their interests and profile vs simply basing the matches on cast or location,” says Sachin. The company has two strong USPs - verification and compatibility. “Fake profiles are a big issue with most dating and matrimonial websites today and our robust process will weed out the fake and display only verified profiles on the site,” adds Hitesh.
The platform verifies details of match seekers like phone number, identity, professional profile, friend circle and daily activity. “For the carefully treading, it is a boost of confidence in the right direction before they actually meet,” says Sachin.
The website works on a social algorithm, based on an exhaustive research conducted by a team of psychologists who eventually derived a set of personality attributes responsible for a long term, successful relationship. The basis of the matching process is completely dependent on the views and preferences of the participants.
There have been efforts in the space like Sourcebits' twine, Floh, and a few others. The aim has been to make match-making more human and communities are blooming but we're still a long way from hitting a critical mass. TrulyMadly claims to be unique because it’s targeting a category which is yet to evangelize. It seeks to combine the advantages of technology with a human touch, to convert probability to possibilities and get people exactly what they're looking for.
The startup is being bootstrapped by founders and at present it’s focused on tweaking up the product instead of raising investment. We have a strong focus on mobile and will launch an app for Android as well as iOS enabled devices.