There are many dating apps out there. But why does love still feel hard to come by?

It seemed like the dating world was focused on the wrong thing. The problem isn’t some swipe apocalypse as some claimed. Neither is the solution just switching which gender messages first.

It’s something much more core to the dating experience. It’s about finding the people that’ll effortlessly love, appreciate, and understand us for who we naturally are. Feeling that undeniable spark of chemistry when you know you’re with the right person. Someone who is everything you’re not, yet somehow just the same.

We felt like current dating apps were really inefficient. They help you meet more people, not more of the right people, wasting time, money, and emotional preparation on bad dates with no chemistry.

It's not just bad dates. The time and effort from swiping, messaging, arranging dates, and preparing both emotionally and physically, just for dates to continuously not work out, has created dating fatigue and the sense that online dating is hopeless. It's also hard to tell what a person is actually like through text, only to be disappointed after meeting or the first month of dating.

Dating apps felt like a forced game of trial and error where our emotions and heartbreak are put at stake each time it doesn’t work out, as we’ve come to expect.

It’s why we created Boo. We were tired of seeing our friends heartbroken over failed relationships; ending up with the wrong people whose values were incompatible with their own; struggling to communicate in a relationship in which their differences seemed greater than their willingness to compromise; and constantly worrying about whether they will be liked for who they are.

The reality is, the problem isn’t them. And neither is it you. It’s a misalignment of people who see the world fundamentally differently. We believe there is someone for everyone. What one person may misunderstand and see in you as the worst thing ever, another will appreciate and see in you what they’ve been waiting for all this time. Yes, despite all your flaws, there is someone that will see them as the best possible flaws to have in light of your best traits. And we’ll tell you who, and why.

What we have always known is that our personality type influences the kinds of people we're attracted to. Research in recent years, like this study for example, confirms the relationship personality plays in both attraction and compatibility, and it doesn't make sense for this not to play a part in modern mainstream online dating.

After all, organizations like McKinsey and the U.S. Air Force have used MBTI, along with 88% of Fortune 500 companies. It just works.

It has even become one of the most popular trends on Tinder in 2019.

With tools like the Myers Briggs (MBTI) and the Five Factor Model (Big 5), we can now not only predict the likelihood of being attracted to someone, but also how likely you are to be compatible for the long term. Attraction has always been a black box, but it isn’t anymore and doesn’t have to be on dating apps.

One of the best parts about the experience we’re trying to create is that the user has all the power to choose. We’re creating the first compatibility algorithm that’s completely transparent and customizable based on your unique preferences, perspective, and past experiences. And one that empowers singles to understand more about themselves and why they are consistently attracted to certain types.

We wanted to create a radically efficient, authentic, transparent, and empathetic dating experience where people can feel free to be themselves, because it is exactly by being yourself that the right person will come along and like and appreciate you for who you naturally are. On Boo, if someone matched with you, they’re already aware of your best and worst traits, and still decided they’d rather have you over any other type. On Boo, you’re already what each other are looking for.

We don’t believe there’s a perfect match or type; what being complementary personalities does is make it easier for two people to understand and appreciate each other. Because in practice, it can be hard to understand and appreciate someone very different in values and ways of thinking than yourself, as friends, and even harder as lovers.

We believe all types can have a meaningful relationship with any other type, but the chances of success are lower; the differences tend to be greater than each other’s willingness to compromise, and odds are, you probably won’t find each other as attractive in the first place. They just won't seem to have that "it" factor.

You may also say, dating by types can lead to missing out on those few individuals that may work out but aren't recommended types. This is true, but the data shows the odds of success are low, and since we now have a choice, our philosophy is that it's better to recommend at the expense of the exceptions to help the most people the fastest.

People’s preferences can be different, even among similar personalities. That’s why on Boo, we’ll recommend the types you’re statistically very likely to like, but ultimately which types you want to date is your choice, even if it’s outside of our recommendation.

Technology and personality research have vastly improved our understanding of how attraction works and have improved immensely since the first dating apps. It’s time we had one that reflects this.