The example of Bumble, this is a little different because it’s a lot of custom-made things and technology

AA: It depends. If it’s a pure white label partnership where we just provide technology and we just branded our technology, let’s say we did a partnership with Tango, it’s a messenger in the US, and we did this Fiesta, or we did a partnership with Blendr which is Joe’s project. This is just a revenue share, from our side we provide the technology platform, moderation, service-side, a whole bunch of things. The whole infrastructure. From their side they provide marketing. They market users, they bring the users. They’re responsible for the users, we’re responsible for keeping users on the platform, monetising users on the platform, making the users happy. This is the one type of partnership.

This is not like direct . This is

what I call tailor-made partnership where we are trying to understand and define the business model together. Trying to find a message together, trying to find the direction of the future project. We use money for future marketing steps, or we maybe not use the money for marketing. But the goal here, if I see the individual who I can trust and I believe that this individual can make this project happen, I’m happy to participate myself and with Badoo infrastructure by providing Badoo infrastructure and providing some funds.

AA: It’s a custom process. We have the base, and it depends on what is the message? What is the idea? We probably spend another weeks or months to, in addition, to develop features that are missing for this type of charm date no funciona partnership.

BI: You mentioned that you outsource the marketing to your partners. Do you see a point in the future where you would do that internally?

AA: No, I think Whitney is very good at what she’s doing, she’s very strong at marketing and I don’t think this is something we should focus on. We are happy with the partnership that we have with Whitney. We provide all infrastructure, all technology, all the services, and she just focuses on one thing: Marketing.

We have never acquired anything but instead secured many successful partnerships where we would cover the technological and monetisation parts and the other partner takes care of the marketing and user traffic.

AA: No, we don’t. All of them are very different. It’s like going to restaurants. If a new one opens around the corner, it doesn’t mean that you’re going to stop going to the one you have always loved.

All the apps we’re involved in have a twist which differs them from one another. We offer users a choice/different experiences.

Our mood changes every day depending on so many life factors. Why then expect people to stick to one app or restaurant?

BI: Could you run me through the story of Badoo and Bumble?

Whitney and I started the business together back in 2014, I loved her vision for a female-focused company in the social media space, and believed in what she wanted to achieve. But, given my extensive experience in the dating industry, and hers as well, I encouraged her to execute on her mission in the dating space.

AA: I’m currently really busy with Badoo

While Bumble has access to some of our London Badoo infrastructure, it runs autonomously as an entirely separate company; headquartered in Texas under Whitney’s leadership.

Although I am focused on Badoo day to day, I am still an active partner in Bumble. Whitney and I work together closely and through what I have built at Badoo, I am able to provide substantial resources to Bumble and am very involved with the product side of the company.