Dahlia Eisenberg hasn’t eaten or bought animal products in more than six years. For her, finding a partner that lives by the same vegan values is just as important as other forms of compatibility, like a similar sense of humor. (Yes, there’s a dating app for that.) Eisenberg said she tried dating people who weren’t vegan before, but it just didn’t work out.
“I’ve tried to be as open to it as possible. And I just find that I’m asked the same questions over and over on the date and there’s just this disconnect,” Eisenberg said. “Ultimately, I want to be with someone who shares the same values as me.”
One year ago, Eisenberg launched the vegan dating app Vegpal. In the last 12 months Vegpal has morphed into a vegan friendship and community app, with the option to turn on dating preferences in a user’s profile. Eisenberg said she plans to lean into the community aspect of Vegpal in the years ahead.
“We pivoted based on user feedback. So many people wanted a friendship feature as well. They wanted to be able to not just meet a partner but to meet friends,” Eisenberg said.
Vegpal was the kind of app Eisenberg always wished she had to help her meet other vegans. She met some vegans through street activism, but she also recognized that public displays of activism were not for everyone. And finding vegan Facebook groups or looking for people using #vegan on Instagram wasn’t the “seamless” experience she wanted.
Eisenberg may be a tech CEO now, but she comes from an education background. She was a special education teacher in Massachusetts public schools before realizing that if no one was creating a more private, high quality vegan dating app, she would need to do it herself.
While still teaching, Eisenberg hired an engineering team in India to build the first iteration of Vegpal. She was setting nightly alarms to wake up at 2 a.m., 4 a.m. and 5 a.m. to check in with her international team during this process.
After the app launched last August, Eisenberg decided to quit her teaching job and work full time on Vegpal. She also brought on a U.S.-based engineer Megg Gawat and business partner Tamer Shafik.
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It’s free to use Vegpal, but unlike other dating and community apps, users can’t just make a profile on a whim. Eisenberg said users need to apply, answer a few questions and submit a photo. Through this process Eisenberg said they’re able to screen out people making spam accounts.
Eisenberg didn’t want Vegpal to be a one-and-done app where people meet a new friend or partner and never return. So, her team created a feed so users can post new photos, videos, text or other links to keep conversations from fizzling out.
Later this year, Vegpal is also going to be launching an events feed for organizations or users to post about in person or virtual get togethers.
“If I’m a user and I have a couple of hours to kill on a Sunday night, maybe I want to do a little gaming session with some friends,” Eisenberg said. “I can create an event on the app. I get to set the terms of it. Is it free or is it paid? Is it online or is it in person? Is it open to everybody or just my connections?”
To fuel its growth, Vegpal is in the process of raising a seed round and building advertisements for vegan products into the user feed. Eisenberg said the app has “tens of thousands” of users around the world. The team wants to continue growing that user base to build up the vegan movement.
“We’re bringing people together. We are creating that community which is the foundation of the vegan movement,” Eisenberg said.
