As part of our on-going partnership with Kickstart London, we are excited to support one of the entrepreneurial groups that have taken part in this year’s 10-week programme.

The group is formed of two students, Dayo from University College London and Jocellin from London School of Economics, and they want your opinion on their idea for a new dating app – Dating Rewired.

Ahead of the Open Panel Discussion on Thursday 23rd March, we asked Dayo a few questions about being a Start-up…

1. What/who inspired you to study Technology Entrepreneurship at UCL?

My undergraduate degree was in Computer Science at the University of Manchester. After graduating, I joined a Big 4 IT Management Consulting Firm. While working, I did an evening course at the Founder Institute and caught the startup bug. I decided that I wanted to pursue this as a next career path and hence the decision to study Technology Entrepreneurship at UCL. The degree is not just academic, we get mentoring, a trek to Silicon Valley and guest lectures from established tech entrepreneurs.

2. You are on the Kickstart London programme, tell us more about it and your experiences…

Kickstart is an awesome initiative that brings together a group of like-minded entrepreneurial students from London Unis, for a ten-week programme of workshops led by business experts. We get industry mentors and the opportunity to pitch to Angel Investors and Venture Capitalists. The best part was meeting a like-minded group of entrepreneurial students who are creating awesome startups ranging from fintech, to an editorial magazine to a fitness solution. I even met my co-founder, Jocellin on the programme!

3. What made you want to set up a dating App? There are so many dating apps out there, Tinder, Match, Lovestruck etc. what is your stand out USP?

Many of the existing apps do a great job of location based matching, which tend to facilitate casual hook-ups. We are on a mission to help people who are seeking committed relationships. Also, Jocellin is South Korean and I am British/Nigerian – our research has shown that cultural appreciation is vital to relationships – we are designing an app to help people connect over shared cultural experiences.

4. What age group is it aimed at?

First and foremost, we are promoting an inclusive platform where “anyone and everyone is welcome”. Happy relationships can occur across a broad age spectrum including “age-gap” relationships like Drake and Jennifer Lopez! However we believe those aged 20-35 would get the most from the app.

5. What advice would you give to others wanting to start up a business idea?

Before you financially invest in your business idea, run lots of quick cheap experiments to test if your idea is actually solving a valid problem that people have. A test could simply be surveying 15 people, or using a tool like Wix to create a free landing page to test if people will sign up. Embrace making mistakes and commit to learning from them. Keep good mentors around to accelerate your learning curve

6. If you could be Mayor of London for one day, what would you do/change in London?

If I was the Mayor of London for a day, I would create designated “social carriages” on the London Underground. Londoners could break the code of silence on the tube and elect to sit in a “social carriage” where people could freely start conversations. Let’s humanise the tube experience, make connections and maybe even find the next job or date!