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well Adam welcome very much thank you
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for having me yeah know uh we honored to
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have you at the W India economic forum
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and at the knowledge at won as well
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thanks thanks for coming uh so let's
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start off with your recent trip to India
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you were just in India I was there for
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the entire month of March and was that
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your first trip it was my first trip
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yeah so Impressions give us your
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impression it was unbelievable um uh you
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know we've been our company has been
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operating in India from New York City
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but our you know our our user base has
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been in India for about a year but none
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of us have been had been there and so in
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my head India was a concept and it
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wasn't reality until I actually stepped
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off the plane and you know immediately
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the sights smells sounds just hit you
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and it's just such a different place I
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I've done a lot of traveling in my life
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nothing really compared to to sort of
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the entirely different world that India
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is so it's a sensory overload
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absolutely right so and you were there
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for a month yes and you were there for
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igniter so why don't you tell us a
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little bit about igniter sure I was
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there for igniter that's right that's my
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startup it's a group dating website
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which basically means you and your
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friends make a profile together you go
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find another group and you all go out on
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a group date and so the idea is that
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it's a safer less awkward more fun
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approach to online dating and you had
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never been to India none of your
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partners had been to
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India what happened um we had never been
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to India none of our partners had been
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to India and uh we started the company
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really with the idea of building
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something for ourselves uh you know we
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were 20s somethings living in New York
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City wanting a better way to meet new
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people but what happened was the site
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took off in India and so over the course
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of 2009 and into 20 10 while we were
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focusing on markets like New York City
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and Philadelphia and Boston we would go
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into our analytics and see that places
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like India and Malaysia and Singapore
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and Indonesia were just growing like
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crazy right and so you thought so at
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first we thought that's interesting but
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it's not it's not our Focus so we
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ignored it uh you know and we said well
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let's you know we'll track the growth
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but that's we won't focus on it and that
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only lasted a few months because the
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growth continued and it started to get
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you know to really ramp up to the point
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where we looked at each other and said
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guys what are we doing this is this you
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know we don't know exactly why but
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there's something really working here uh
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and so that's when we decided we're
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going to change our focus and really
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figure out what we're doing right and
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what we're doing wrong and continue to
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you know to optimize our site for for
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these markets right so what were you
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doing right in India you think I think
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the model is is right um I think the
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fact that we're a group dating website
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is is right in India um and I I didn't
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know this at first and I'm I'm learning
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it more and more now and the more people
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I talk to people like yourself people
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like uh you know who who grew up in
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India people who just understand Indian
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culture I get the same Universal story
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they say uh you know I say I tell them
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the story and I say you know it was
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really a surprise it was an accident and
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to them it it it's it's uh a no-brainer
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they say of course that you know that
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makes perfect sense that group dating is
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working in India culturally that's just
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a perfect fit and so that that's what
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we're learning yeah and uh can you also
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give us some of your impressions about
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the entrepreneurship ecosystem in India
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now obviously you've you were here for a
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few years working on your startup uh I
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imagine other startups in the past uh
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and now you've just come from India I
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imagine met other entrepreneurs met
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other you know VCS users Etc can you
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give us some sense of how you perceive
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the entrepreneurship ecosystem in India
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I think it's just starting to really
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take off right now uh I was able to meet
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with uh some really great entrepreneurs
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and I think what it's going to take is a
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couple big exits in order for you know
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the US uh Silicon Valley even New York
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has had some has some really big
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successes and uh sites like make my trip
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for example in India are the those type
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of events that kind of uh you know an
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IPO major major exits are the are the
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kind of thing that are going to get the
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smartest people in India the most driven
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people in India to question uh you know
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taking the sort of uh traditional path
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after school and really you know trying
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something new and and realizing that
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there's big opportunity in taking a risk
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and I think that that's just starting to
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happen now yeah but did you think that
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there was now starting to be a lot of
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support around entrepreneurs who did
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take the plunge absolutely I actually
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met with uh a lot of great VCS and and
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you know and I don't know the VC I don't
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know the history as well of the VC World
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in India but from what I understand it's
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a pretty nent uh environment and the
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there's a ton of early stage money out
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there looking for great companies and
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I've been able to work with um you know
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not necessarily take money from but work
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with some of these VCS in India and the
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type of support they're providing to
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startups even startups they're not
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investing in but uh is is tremendous
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then the amount of time that they're
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putting into into these startups is
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really amazing right so what's your
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future plan in India for igniter uh our
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future plan is to is to really continue
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to understand like I said what we're
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doing right and what we're doing wrong
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that's the first step we're we're in the
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process of opening an office there in
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Mumbai in Mumbai uhhuh uh and hiring
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people we want to hire a product team in
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India we have our first hire just uh
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we're just completing that process right
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now and really the first steps are going
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to be looking at our brand identity in
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India you know like I said I mean the
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site the brand everything associated
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with the site was built for a US
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audience right so some things are are
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are happen to be working really well in
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India uh we're starting to figure out
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what those are and some things I I think
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uh are not going to be working well in
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India and we need to sort of identify
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those and change them
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and from there I think we'll look to
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continue to step on the gas and and grow
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yeah so if I can bring you back to your
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own personal story so you grew up in New
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Jersey yes and you know here you are
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working on a startup that's uh doing
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really well in India yeah can you tell
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us a bit about your personal trajectory
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how you actually took the plunge uh into
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Entre entrepreneurship sure so um
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entrepreneurship was always an idea in
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the back of my head but it was never uh
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it was never it was never something that
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I knew I wanted to do I I grew up in New
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Jersey I went to Northwestern University
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in Chicago majored in film I actually
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always thought I wanted to be a writer
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for TV um and there's TV in India
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there's TV in India exactly so a after
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school I started working in television
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um but a buddy a college buddy of mine
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who was also living in the city he was
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working in finance I was working in
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television we started to throw around
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this idea uh you know we we looked at
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our social life actually and and
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realized that every weekend was becoming
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the same it was the same group of guys
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going out with the same group of girls
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and we were you know the early 20s we
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wanted to meet new people we wanted to
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meet women we really were sort of afraid
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and turned off by the existing options
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on on on the web they were you know they
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they seemed really just not the way that
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we would organically go out and meet
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people uh to create this sort of blind
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date and we realized we like going out
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with each other we feel comfortable
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going out with each other and trying to
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meet new people and so we started to
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talk about this idea of group dating and
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the more people we spoke to in our
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demographic the more people said that
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idea is is brilliant that's such a good
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idea and we and we it got to the point
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where we couldn't stop thinking about it
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and at that point once you know that
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you're just you're become obsessed with
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a concept you be become obsessed with a
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potential business there was just there
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was no choice we had to we had to dive
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in right and so you just knew because
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you were getting obsessed with this idea
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that there was no other option there was
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no way you're going you were going to go
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become a TV writer at this point no I
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mean I I I figured you know what I'm
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going to give this a chance if it fails
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then I can then I'll I'll go back to be
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maybe becoming a TV writer but uh I I
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wanted to give it a shot yeah so now
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given the fact that you're running a
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group dating site are you also you
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envision yourself becoming a dating Guru
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at some point or have you already become
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one I don't think I don't think I'm a
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guru at anything um but I I believe you
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write for The Huffington Post I I have
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written a little bit for The Huffington
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Post I I do um yeah I I mean I think I'm
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understanding a little bit about dating
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I think I think really I'm going to
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become an Indian dating Guru uh so share
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some uh share some tips so for in the
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Indian dating scene what are the right
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things to do what are sort of the No No
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and Indian dating let me see um so I I
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think it I think Indian people need to
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be a little bit more bold I think um I
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think in the past on both sides guys and
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girls on both sides yeah I think it's
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going to be harder to to to uh convince
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the girls to be bold but even the guys
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need to be more bold I know you know
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both sides I'm convinced after my month
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in India and after talking to our
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customers just like young people in the
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United States young people in India want
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to go on dates they want to meet new
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people but uh they've they've grown up
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in a in a little bit of a more
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conservative environment that makes them
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a little scared to initiate that
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conversation so there's really nothing
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my my tip is there's nothing to lose by
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initiating a conversation meet new
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people and see where it goes I think uh
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if you can just take the take the plunge
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and say hello to people you can you can
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see where you can go from there so who
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is this Target customer in India the
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Target customer right now are our
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average age on the site is about uh
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between 23 and 24 years old it's uh it's
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recent College grads it's a lot of the
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sort of um Urban young people so uh the
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biggest cities in in India are where we
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find most of our users right and so
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given that you know you're launching an
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office you're hiring people in India
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what do you and having just come back
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what do you see as your main challenge
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in India going forward from the
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management perspective I think operating
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a company on a uh you know on two sides
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of the world is is going to be a
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challenge um and India is uh by far our
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biggest market and our primary concern
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but it's also not our only Market uh so
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we have uh had success and we're having
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a lot of early success in in other
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markets on that side of the world so I
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think um being able to reconcile uh a a
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handling a business that's operating in
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in many different countries with many
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different cultures is going to be our
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biggest challenge yeah and do you plan
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uh to move to India anytime soon I don't
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know if I plan to move there I plan to
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spend a lot of time there uh probably
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these monthlong trips are are what I'll
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do maybe once a quarter and uh if needed
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then I'm I'm ready to move there but
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we'll see I loved it I loved my trip
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there yeah I would love to spend time
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there sure well Adam it's been great uh
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this is a pleasure talking to you about
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the Indian dating scene and also your
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startup thanks good luck going forward
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thank you so much
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thanks
