A Stanford grad student developed an algorithm to help his classmates find love; now, Date Drop is the foundation of his new beginning

As Valentine’s Day approaches at Stanford, some students may be planning early dates — not with people they met on Tinder or Hinge, but with matches from a conference called Date Dropdeveloped by Stanford graduate student Henry Weng. Date Drop pairs students with potential dates once a week based on their answers to a quiz.

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More than 5,000 Stanford students have tried Date Drop since it launched in the fall. It has rolled out to 10 other schools, including MIT, Princeton, and the University of Pennsylvania, and Weng says he plans to roll out Date Drop more broadly in other cities this summer.

“Our matches convert to real dates at about 10x the rate of Tinder,” Weng told TechCrunch. “Instead of swimming, we get to know each person in depth and send them one game a week.”

At first, Weng didn’t want to turn Date Drop into a starting point. Then, her best friend met her friend through Date Drop. He said: “That’s when I realized that this job was limited.

Now, Weng is considering Date Drop as the first project since his founding, The Relationship Companywhich is a charitable organization – the type of company that is legally required to consider social impact along with profit.

“This started as something I just wanted to have on campus, and it became a company because people kept asking in their schools and I needed resources to do this,” he said.

Already, Weng has raised “a few million” from other angel investors, including Zynga founder and Facebook founder Mark Pincus, who has taught business courses at Stanford (including Weng). Andy Chen, a former partner at Coatue, and Elad Gil, an early backer of Airbnb, Stripe, and Pinterest, also invested in The Relationship Company.

“The long-term vision at The Relationship Company is about managing all important relationships: friendships, professional connections, community, events,” Weng said.

Part of the course is using algorithms to predict whether dating users are likely to be compatible – that’s how dating apps work. But Weng says his brand tends to create long-term relationships, with 95% of Date Drop users saying they are interested in relationships.

Weng explains that there are two main factors at play. First, the question must be broad enough to paint a true picture of the person. “We do this through questions, open-ended responses, voice conversations, and other user input,” he said.

The next challenge is predicting interactions. “Because we help people plan dates, we have the data on which matches are played. So we have a model trained on real situations,” he said. “When you have these two components, the real similarities are the things that are related to academic writing.”

Currently pursuing a master’s degree in computer science at Stanford, Weng has focused his studies on economics and mathematics. equality. As a Stanford undergrad, he made his majors in sociology, comparative, and motivational studies.

“I started to see how it fits into our lives,” Weng told TechCrunch. “Who is your best friend, who are your friends, what college do you go to, what company do you work for that have similar problems.”

Beyond his technical training, Weng found an unexpectedly helpful class in learning to drive the basics: “Intro to Clown.”

He said: “The main point of comedy is that actors fail, and instead of fearing failure, they enjoy it. “As a producer, your whole journey is failing over and over and over again. The Clown Band was amazing.”

Currently, The Relationship Company has two employees besides Weng, along with 12 students who work as school ambassadors. Because their work involves making matches, Weng developed their ideas on how to run the company. They give employees $100 a month in “friendship money,” which they can spend on dates, gifts, events, or anything that helps them develop important relationships of any kind.

“Relationships are one of the most important things in a person’s life,” said Weng. “There is also excellent research that shows that money spent on helping others makes you happier than money spent on yourself.”

Weng’s interest in how people form relationships also informed the way he lived his daily life.

“Date Drop has shown me how many interesting people you might not meet in all your activities,” she said. “It made me open up to people I wouldn’t have crossed paths with otherwise.”