Entering the dating scene can be hard, and making new friends can be equally challenging. That’s why a Denver-based dating app designed for people with chronic illnesses and disabilities is looking to scale its offerings beyond dating.
Dateability launched in October 2022 and has built a national user base of 7,000 people. Now, the company is raising capital to expand into the friendship realm.
Dateability’s web and mobile app work similarly to other dating platforms in that users match with each other and afterward, can message one another. Each profile includes a photo of the user, a short bio and their interests. Dateability users can also fill out a section called “Dateability Deets” that allows the users to select words or phrases to describe their disability. This list ranges from descriptions like wheelchair user and mobility aid to low vision, service animal and permanent medical device.
“It tells the user, ‘Hey, we don’t view disability as a negative. We don't think you need to be ashamed about disclosing it.’ ... and then it also reduces the anxiety that one may feel when having to disclose,” Dateability co-founder Alexa Child said. “... It’s just a nice way to get it out there without having to have that conversation.”
The next iteration of the app will focus on platonic friendships.
Although this feature isn’t yet available, Dateability is bridging the gap. It recently rolled out a “looking for” section where users can say if they are looking for a romantic relationship, casual relationship, polyamorous relationship or friendship. There’s also a “don’t know yet” option.
Founding story
The idea behind Dateability came from Jacqueline Child’s own experience. Jacqueline is Alexa’s sister and the co-founder of Dateability.
Jacqueline was diagnosed with a chronic illness as a young teenager. Jacqueline said she has a type of chronic pain called trigeminal neuralgia, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and gastroparesis, which slows or stops the movement of food from one’s stomach to the small intestine. She has also been diagnosed with other disorders impacting her nervous system and connective tissues.
When she moved to Denver after graduating college, Jacqueline found it hard to go on dates because most people valued adventurous qualities and wanted to go on hikes. When she disclosed her diagnosis, she said she often received offensive comments.
“That was obviously a traumatic experience and then there were a lot of subtle, ablest comments and discriminatory comments like people saying that their friends didn’t think that they would ever date someone like me, or their parents discourage them from dating someone with chronic illnesses,” Jacqueline said. “And this happened for years and years.”
In 2021, Jacqueline had a procedure to put a feeding tube in her abdomen, which made it even more difficult to go on dates, especially ones that involved food.
Jacqueline tried finding dating apps geared toward people with disabilities but came up empty-handed. So, Alexa, a former public interest attorney, suggested they make the app themselves.
While recovering in the hospital, the two sisters began jotting down ideas for Dateability. Jacqueline said she even drew the startup’s logo from her hospital bed.
The app is quickly approaching its one-year anniversary and has grown its user base through word of mouth. Alexa said its users are located across the U.S. with clusters in major metropolitan areas like Denver, Chicago and New York City. There are also large groups of users in Texas, Arizona and California.
The app’s users are currently made up of 53% women, 42% men and 5% non-binary, something Jacqueline said is very unique because most mainstream dating apps have only 30% women and 70% men.
User feedback about Dateability has been great so far, Jacqueline said, and the sisters are ready to bring the same positive experience to helping users find friends.
“We want [the friendship feature] to focus on less superficial things,” Jacqueline said. “We really want someone’s personality to shine through and show their interests and basic information before pictures.”
Raising capital during a slow market
Dateability began raising a round of venture capital funding in January.
Raising capital this year has been a challenge for many companies given the national VC slowdown due to inflation, bank failures and other factors.
“It has been so hard,” Alexa said.
Women-founded companies typically raise less capital than their male counterparts. In 2022, women-founded companies raised 1.9% of all VC funds.
“We’ve been told that female founders are great at … getting the word out but when it comes to funding ... we’re last,” Jacqueline said. “And then you add in the disability-centric stuff and even just like knock us down even further."
Since launching, Dateability has raised a small round from angel investors. The startup declined to say how much capital it has raised to date.
The capital Dateability has raised so far has helped it add new features — including user verification — and an admin app, which allows Alexa and Jacqueline to send messages to all users, review user data and manage and delete reported users.
Alexa and Jacqueline said they are not yet taking a salary and instead putting money toward enhancing the app and its user experience.
“Truly every dollar that we receive is being put to really good use,” Jacqueline said. “We've been able to enhance the app greatly since launching. … We’re spending our money very effectively and efficiently.”
Alexa and Jacqueline hope to close additional capital soon and launch the friendship feature by the end of the year.
