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Ask HN: Rate my startup- CrushTease

10 points by jiganti ↗ HN
Three weeks ago I asked what I should do: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1625791

Thanks to you guys I found a partner and have a product today:

http://www.crushtease.com

In short, it's an "anonymous matching/crush matching" service, with the twist that when two people are confirmed interested in each other, instead of telling both of them, you alternate between who you tell. This provides the uncertainty that makes relationships fun and interesting in their early stages.

You can read about it more on: www.zachjiganti.com

Please check it out and let me know what's good, bad, and if you think people will use it.

18 comments

[ 6.3 ms ] story [ 52.4 ms ] thread
pinksoda
It's interesting because when two people have a mutual crush, and you are told of the crush, you won't know if they were told unless they mention it. So you have a confirmed connection of some sort, but you still need the balls to act on it. Or maybe you won't act on it?

Think about it the other way too: They were told, but you weren't. You think she just doesn't crush you, but maybe she did and you weren't told. What if she was told and she starts flirting with me?

The mystery is glorious.

hasenj
I can see people abusing this by saying they have a crush on everyone on their friend list, just to see if anything sticks.
jiganti
There is a limit to the amount of people you can crush, it's set now at 20. Thoughts on this number?
hasenj
I don't know, 20 seems rather high. Maybe 3?
pinksoda
It has to be a number that works for social butterflies too. "Crushing" means something different to everyone; friendship, dating, hookup, marriage, etc. People also change their 'crushes' at different rates depending on their lifestyle and personality.
pinksoda
The 4 options deter this. You can crush 20 people to see if it sticks, but there's no guarantee you are ever even told.

There is also a delay in the crushing so you don't know how often we look for mutual crushes so you never know when to change the 20(max limit) you already have.

hasenj
Doesn't matter. If the other person gets a message then it has already stuck.

Plus, think long term: if people feel that this service can be abused, then they're not gonna trust it very much.

"Oh, it says this girls has a crush on me, but I wonder if she really does? or was she just fooling around with the app?"

jiganti
People will eventually trust it based on how often others "fool around" with the app. I don't see any great reason to input fake crushes, so I'm not anticipating this being a huge problem, but I could be wrong.

Previous services emailed you anonymously when someone else had input your email, which was the way they admitted to being interested in you. However this just made people curious as to who was crushing them, so they input a number of random friends' emails haphazardly. Those friends did the same. This system promoted curiosity, which demoted sincerity and eventually the sites just ended up with a big email list.

Since facebook will give people a good idea of who's using the app, we're hoping that this medium will be adequate, without the use of anonymous emails.

tincho
I think it's a great idea. congrats. I would change a little bit the way it works. You could ask when someone registers if they would preffer to approach or be approached. You could mix up the probabilities of getting the info according if you are more likely to approach the other person or not (I'm guessing your ultimate objective is to form couples) Best of lucks! Martin
philh
I'm a little curious about this:

>As a general rule, women lose interest once they know the other person is interested in them.

If a girl and a boy crush on each other, and the girl gets told and loses interest, the boy is in a worse position than before. Do you feel the uncertainty of "does he know I like him back?" will help keep her interested?

When you sign up it doesn't ask for permission to access relationship status. Does that mean you're not keeping track of your "success rate"?

jiganti
What I meant was that past services that tell both people make the relationship a little flat. Flirting becomes a little pointless, which is no fun.

In the instance you specified, she is still uncertain as to whether he knows she's interested, which is enough to keep her wondering and somewhat emotionally invested.

As of right now we aren't keeping track of "success rate", but I think we'll eventually put up numbers as to how many people have both displayed their interest in the other person.

run4yourlives
This provides the uncertainty that makes relationships fun and interesting in their early stages.

Um, isn't the "uncertainty" the whole reason that you haven't just asked them out in the first place already? Isn't it the whole idea of not wanting to ruin a friendship or 2 or more (in the case where you or the other person are "taken") the whole reason that a person keeps their feelings secret to begin with?

How does this app actually aid with those issues at all?

jiganti
This and other crush-matching apps aid with these issues by eliminating the chance that you could be rejected. CrushTease isn't really novel in this sense, other apps provided a medium so rejection won't happen, but there was no "happy medium" (no pun intended) that prevented rejection but maintained a level of uncertainty. That's our goal.
dzlobin
There is a startup out of dogpatch NYC who's doing a similar idea, but last I heard it was limited to college students.

www.goodcrush.com

Edit: It looks like they pivoted away and turned into something I thought about doing a while back.