POV: You're usingSmitten

WE NOTICED A PROBLEM:

So many matches. So few plans.

Post 2010, a flood of dating apps put a whole world of people in your pocket.

And gave us a very strange set of instructions...

Look spontaneous in a carefully selected photo. Be funny in a sentence you’ve rewritten nine times. Give strangers a reason to choose you, while giving the impression that you’re not trying too hard.

We swiped left, then right. Then we continued swiping... and swiping... and swiping... and wiping our smiles away.

We match. The app gives us an empty chat box. Apparently, liking each other’s photos is enough material for an entire conversation.

“We should get a drink.” Neither of us picks a bar.

Somehow, you’ve gone from strangers to pen pals to strangers again. Without ever sitting across from each other.

What happened to the magic of getting to know someone? The shy giggles, the wide-eyed curiosity, the chronic palpitations, the lunging for the phone when you get a notification?

So we vowed to bring that back. And Smitten, was born.

WE'RE CREATING:

First dates that feellike the second

Download Smitten

Dating shouldn’t feel like a job interview. Convos shouldn’t be forced. Laughter shouldn’t be faked.

And you shouldn’t feel pressured to sell yourself.

These are the struggles we hear from people in our community of 3 million users:

“Everyone’s trying to sell themself on dating apps. It’s hard to know people.”

So we’re giving you more to go on.

We’re here for the kind of convo that leaves you yapping nonstop and thinking, “I want to hear the rest of this in person.”

Guessary (personality quiz challenge) and Wavy (rating game) let you meet new people, figure out their personalities and find common ground. Things to ask about, laugh about, and continue over a drink.

Because “We should meet sometime” deserves an actual time and place.

Our dream is to help every single pringle arrive at a first date with more than a name and a nice photo to go on.

So… you next?

OUR VALUES + PRINCIPLES

Written lawsof Smitten

We believe that having fun in everything we do leads to more productive and more creative work. Doesn't mean we're just all-play (oooh shocking).

These principles below reflect our values at heart through our hands at work.

Accept the reality, shape the future
Users are our ultimate source of answers. We listen intently to understand their unique challenges and design innovative solutions they need, not what we think they want.
Strong opinions, weakly held
Raise your voice, not your tone. We speak our minds, stay receptive to opposing ideas, and form strong opinions grounded in data and experience.
We encourage constructive criticism and cherish each time we are wrong. Ego never hinders opportunities to grow as individuals and as a team. True failure only exists if you don't learn from it.
Drive success
Once we have our eyes set a goal, we never stop until we achieve it. We're all drivers, not passengers. By taking the wheel as individuals we drive success together.
Caring communications
Smitten is built on friendship. We hold one another to the highest standards and push one another forward.
We never shy from telling it how it is. Caring isn't soft. Caring means tough love, critiquing tactfully, and building relationships with empathy.

Accept the reality, shape the futureStrong opinions, weakly heldDrive successCaring communications

SMITTEN STORYTIME

The plan was The One,the result is Smitten

In 2018, Davíð, Vísir, and Magnús made a hypothesis.
“If you can only see one profile a day, you would be more inclined to have deeper, more intimate convos with each other.”
Together, they founded The One, a serious dating app to help people find true love to test their hypothesis.
The fall of The One
For more than a year, they tried to make it work. But user data and metrics handed them the painful truth, time and time again: people didn’t want to be forced to interact with just one person a day.
Their hypothesis was 1000% incorrect. Soon, The One became The End.
A phoenix rising from the ashes
One morning, as the trio were contemplating life over some coffee, they realized why The One failed.
They were building something that didn’t align with what users craved: to explore the social scene, see different (and hidden) sides of people, and meet the crowd without feeling limited to a single choice.
If they were to give it another shot, they’ll accept the reality as it is and build the future their users deserve.
And so, they built an app that gave people more room to explore. They called it Smitten.
Smitten beginnings
Downloads were down (pun intended) for five weeks straight. They had zero marketing dollars and were so broke that they had to take out a $70,000 overdraft to keep it afloat.
Then came the good news...
Users started swiping. Millions of matches were made. Finally, Smitten broke through into six months of week-on-week growth, and has been scaling since.
The lesson: give people room to explore, and something to get curious about.
You're the hero of our story
Building Smitten wasn’t always easy. But we wouldn’t have it any other way.
To date, Smitten has grown to 3 million+ users and has resulted in over 30 million matches.
None of this would’ve been possible without people like you, who gave Smitten a chance. We’re here to help you get to know someone you’d actually make plans with.