Match Group (owner of Tinder/Hinge and 50+ dating sites) sued @muzmatch in the UK and the US.We're a small startup fighting to defend ourselves against the largest $35BN dating company in the world. Trial set for 17th/18th Jan in the UK courts
A thread on how this all came about
A thread on how this all came about
Muslims don't date, we marry. I set up @muzmatch as a website over 10 years ago (2011) as a side project whilst I was still working at @MorganStanley to help my community. Mainstream services just didn't cater to the needs of Muslims after a life partner not casual dating.
2011 - The muzmatch site was pretty revolutionary at the time. No monthly fees, and was fully PAYG - pay 50p to view photos, £1 to chat to a person. Existing options were awful.
I spread the word by any means possible, standing outside of mosques after prayers handing out leaflets and putting little cards on car windshields in Muslim areas, as well as just being generally annoying
The @muzmatch site grew, with thousands using it, and even a few marriages came about!
2014, smartphones were taking off and I realised APPS were the future, not websites. muzmatch had to be an app. It just had to be! Once the idea was in my head, I was convinced if I didn't do it, someone else would.
I quit my 9 year investment banking career and took the leap. From the bedroom of my home, I learned how to build apps.
I designed the first version of the @muzmatch app in MS Word, and learned how to code, taking 4 months to build the iOS app, and 1 month to build the Android app.
Oct 2014 I began coding, and March 2015 shut the old website down and launched the app! @muzmatch was reborn!
@muzmatch was and is the only app I have ever built. It's the first global Muslim marriage app to exist!
The app launched with zero members, and grows organically, with hundreds of new members joining globally.
2016 - I make my first hire. We applied to @ycombinator, and flew out to SF for interviews with Paul Buchheit (creator of gmail). Unfortunately we were rejected given we were pre revenue. YC wanted us to prove this can be a biz.
2016 - We were using muzmatch with a heart device years before they had made any such trademark design registration.
2016 their lawyers send us letters demanding us to cease use of the MUZMATCH brand, claiming they would not allow another dating company to have the english word match in their name. We refuse.
They also demanded we change the look and design of the logo itself. We do not and would not want to be confused with Match Group - it hurts our business to be associated with them.
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