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Dating App: How to build, survive and thrive in the world's most human tech industry
Dating App
How to build, survive and thrive in the world's most human tech industry
Building a dating app is easy
Building a dating business is brutally hard
Users churn and leave quickly. Fraudsters are on the rise and test every weakness. Then there's the advertising platforms that are really pushing back now. Not to mention the challenge of working with payment providers who are ever more nervous about the business of love. Regulators are peering at us and one wrong decision can sink a company.
Dating App is a practical insiders guide to building, operating and surviving in the challenging world of the dating industry. It is written by veteran operator Michael O’Sullivan who has decades of experience building global dating brands.
Inside you will learn
• The economics of dating platforms including churn lifetime value and acquisition costs
• How to choose a niche and build a thriving community
• What users actually pay for in a minimum viable dating product
• User acquisition strategies including affiliates, influencers funnels and attribution
• How to run operations including fraud prevention, moderation and payments
• The metrics investors care about
The book also includes exclusive interviews with six leading operators in the global dating industry sharing firsthand lessons from building scaling and surviving real dating businesses.
This book is a no nonsense playbook for founders, operators and investors who want to truly understand the business of love and connection.
How to build, survive and thrive in the world's most human tech industry
Building a dating app is easy
Building a dating business is brutally hard
Users churn and leave quickly. Fraudsters are on the rise and test every weakness. Then there's the advertising platforms that are really pushing back now. Not to mention the challenge of working with payment providers who are ever more nervous about the business of love. Regulators are peering at us and one wrong decision can sink a company.
Dating App is a practical insiders guide to building, operating and surviving in the challenging world of the dating industry. It is written by veteran operator Michael O’Sullivan who has decades of experience building global dating brands.
Inside you will learn
• The economics of dating platforms including churn lifetime value and acquisition costs
• How to choose a niche and build a thriving community
• What users actually pay for in a minimum viable dating product
• User acquisition strategies including affiliates, influencers funnels and attribution
• How to run operations including fraud prevention, moderation and payments
• The metrics investors care about
The book also includes exclusive interviews with six leading operators in the global dating industry sharing firsthand lessons from building scaling and surviving real dating businesses.
This book is a no nonsense playbook for founders, operators and investors who want to truly understand the business of love and connection.
184 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 3, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 8, 2026
Every founder who pitches me their dating app idea will now get this book assigned first. It's the clearest, richest account I've read of what founders in this industry actually go through. Just as importantly, it shows how to handle the myriad moving pieces of a successful dating community. I was touched to see Michael mentioned my "good friction" recommendation from my keynote - just another example of how he pulled in wisdom from across the industry.
Running a company built on something as core and tender as human connection is challenging in ways outsiders never see, and this book gets that exactly right. Trust me, it'll save you headaches and boatloads of cash.
Running a company built on something as core and tender as human connection is challenging in ways outsiders never see, and this book gets that exactly right. Trust me, it'll save you headaches and boatloads of cash.
September 25, 2026
This is the perfect book for anyone interested in the dating world and building an app! So helpful, insightful and will help you exponentially getting into this industry.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews