CHENNAI: How many times have we nodded our head in agreement when Chandler Bing (from F.R.I.E.N.D.S) said, “I’m gonna die alone.” Of course, Chandler found his life partner in Monica, and that gave all of us hope, too. And to help us find our significant other, Betterhalf is here to rescue us. It’s an online, match-making portal which has been designed for over 5 million working professionals, who are looking for a partner with the intent of marriage.
Pawan Gupta and Rahul Namdev, business graduates, originally based in Bengaluru, came up with the idea after facing difficulties in finding the right partner. A start-up, Betterhalf will now cater its services to Chennai and other parts of India, too. “Chennai is dear to us. We got our first inspirational couple story from this city. We also have many users from here. It’s a pleasure to organise proposals along the beach side,” says Rahul.
Betterhalf uses machine learning and artificial intelligence for the registered users to find their soulmates through scores based on six personality dimensions — moral values, relationship, emotional, intellectual, social and physical. The user will have to rate themselves on a scale of 1 to 5, on factors like kindness, planner, romantic, dominating, etc. The website then provides you with a percentile score for each dimension and automatically generates the profiles of your significant matches based on their scores. You can then start a private conversation with the person of your choice and proceed further.
Unlike most other traditional matrimonial sites, Betterhalf provides a combination of stress-free experience, targeted subset of matches and a quick turn-around time to find compatible partners. The users also have the provision to give private ratings and feedback in order to filter out creepy users off the platform. “I once encountered a user, who turned out a bit annoying. Thankfully, I had the provision to block him,” says Amrutha Rajan, who has signed up for a three-month subscription.
Have they come across any fraudulent cases? “So far, it has been a good journey. It is mandatory for all our users to have a registered account linked with their proof of identity cards like Aadhaar, passport or PAN card.”
Betterhalf is funded by companies like MIT, HBS, Berkley Alums and TiE Angel Network, and also caters to users abroad. “We have a tendency to provide verified matches with working professionals at top companies like Google, Amazon, Adobe, Accenture etc,”shares Pawan.
The site also conducts various offline events like surprise proposals, singles’ party and various get-togethers for the users. According to the founders, the future of the company lies in it’s mission to build the world’s largest partner prediction engine. They aim to build a database of millions of married couples with their reliable relationship data, which will in turn reduce anxiety in those looking for their significant ‘other’.
5 questions to break the ice
● What is the greatest accomplishment of your life?
● How much does love and affection matter to you?
● What is your deepest anxiety or yearning for living?
● What is that one thing that you always wanted to do, but somehow couldn’t?
● What are you looking for in your ideal match?
(To know more visit betterhalf.ai)