"We spend hours swiping, but almost no time on real dates"

Laura Matter from Dinhard wants to revolutionize the dating world with her live video dating platform noii . Instead of spending a lot of time "swiping", singles should spend more time on physical dates. In our interview, the young woman talks about her motivations and the challenges of founding a company during a pandemic.

Laura Matter, in April 2022 you completed the first round of financing with noii and in October 2022 you appeared on "Lions' Den" with your self-programmed platform. How are things currently going at noii?
Laura Matter: We are still at the beginning of our journey, even if it sometimes feels like we've been at it for ten years. It's important to understand that we want to revolutionize the dating world and are therefore constantly testing, gathering feedback and iterating. That takes a lot of time and nerves. But I can say that we are getting a little closer to our goal every day. We can celebrate the first successful relationships through noii, we can put some money into marketing for the first time and proudly say that we have built a great working video dating platform ourselves.

Laura Matter wants to revolutionize the dating world with her dating app "noii".

Nevertheless, let's take a brief look back in time; what prompted you to found noii during the pandemic?
The mass of dating apps and the sheer number of profiles on them makes us believe that we have an unlimited choice of people we could date. We keep "swiping", because something better might come along. What's more, these platforms are programmed to keep users on them for as long as possible. The result is that we spend hours on the platforms, but almost no time on real dates. What's more, nobody wants to waste time. No one wants to go on a two-hour date where we realize after five minutes that it's not going to work out. This whole process made no sense to me, which is why I wanted to change it. I always focused on the following question: How can we give you an authentic impression of someone online so that you want to meet him or her more quickly? Then we started looking for solutions and eventually came up with video dating.

How big is the noii team now?
Our team currently consists of seven people. We are three founders, Thomas Kuschel, Vladislav Lisavcov and myself. We also employ two part-time developers and a UX designer. The team also includes an intern.

Where do you see noii in five years' time?
Our goal is clear: Noii should become one of the 10 largest dating platforms in Europe.

From your own experience: how difficult or easy is it to set up a company in the Winterthur region?
To be honest, I don't know the differences between the cantons or cities. Basically, the start-up process is no longer difficult these days. The hardest part is raising the start-up capital. In our case, we drew on personal savings.

What or which contact point was particularly helpful for you during the start-up process?
The Home of Innovation was central for me, the community there helped me a lot with all questions about the start-up. The exchange with other founders was therefore particularly valuable.

noii is not exclusively online; what can participants look forward to?
In fact, we have already organized a total of three live events in Winterthur. All of them were a great success! Our offline events are deliberately designed to be very relaxed and simple. We don't want to be a speed dating evening where everything is predetermined. It should feel like an evening with friends where you get to meet lots of new people. We've organized a few icebreaker games to make it easier to get to know each other, but these are optional and people usually get talking to each other super organically.

Last but not least: What would a perfect first live date in Winterthur look like for you?
Good question, I'll have to think about that! In winter, I would go to the Teuchelweiher Christmas market together. In summer, and now it's getting a bit cheesy: a picnic on the Goldenberg at sunset.

Interview: Linda Stratacò, April 2023