Responses to last week's election were varied, depending on what side of the aisle you were on. But San Francisco-based dating app The League saw the election results and immediately decided to move up a planned D.C. launch by two months with an "emergency" launch party this Thursday.
"D.C. is a special city. It’s the heart of American politics," founder and CEO Amanda Bradford told DC Inno in an interview. "We wanted to make a statement that no matter how harsh the election was, we are fighting to make a difference."
The League is a members-only dating app known for its strict criteria. It works to promote the idea of a "power couple" in the cities where it operates, looking at an applicant's social media presence before deciding if they fit what the company looks for in its users.
To give you an idea of how ruthless the cuts are, only about 15 percent of applicants were accepted when it launched in Boston and Chicago. That's a smaller percentage than most college acceptance rates.
Bradford said The League is a mission-driven company that's focused on creating a safe space for users who want an egalitarian relationship or one that doesn't play on traditional gender roles, Bradford said.
The League was originally set to launch in D.C. in January, giving the startup plenty of time to comb through the 10,000 people waitlist for the app's D.C. location. Now that they've pushed up the date, the startup has forgone the typical marketing events they do in cities pre-launch, and they've found themselves trying to find the perfect pool of 2,000 users before Thursday.
Bradford thinks they can make it, though, and she doesn't see The League launching in another city any time soon.
"I think in D.C. it will be good to have everyone on early," she said. "D.C. is a big city, and we'll pause at that point and see where our next city will be."
