Pairfect

Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

Industry: Consumer Services

MBA Founding Student Name(s): Annie Xu

Brief Description of Solution: Pairfect is a modern-day matchmaking service that combines technology and matchmakers who meet with each user and suggest matches.

Funding Dollars: Pairfect has received over $100K in funding through grants from the University of Pennsylvania, being a finalist in the University of Pennsylvania’s Start-Up Challenge, participating in an accelerator ran by University of Pennsylvania’s Venture Lab, and winning a consumer-centric pitch competition hosted by Maveron and Contrary Capital.

What led you to launch this venture? As a therapist, I have heard countless stories of users struggling with using dating apps and feeling increasingly discouraged. Research has found that those spending higher amounts of time on dating apps experience higher levels of anxiety and feelings of loneliness. Hearing this from my clients compelled me to create a dating service centered on authenticity and emotional wellness.

What has been your biggest accomplishment so far with venture? Our biggest accomplishments have been seeing our clients enter long-term relationships, with some who have been dating since the time we first piloted our service almost 2 years ago.

What has been the most significant challenge you’ve faced in creating your company and how did you solve it? One of the biggest challenges has been around marketing our service among a market that is saturated with many dating apps. The way we have approached addressing these challenges is to first deeply understand the needs of our clients and the gaps they see in current dating solutions. Centering on the voice of the customer has significantly helped us determine the direction of our service and differentiate our brand.

How has your MBA program helped you further this startup venture? The community that I found within Wharton’s MBA program has been the most helpful in furthering Pairfect. My program introduced me to professors with years of experience studying entrepreneurship and marketing, and they provided me with guidance to steer the direction of my venture. I also strongly benefitted from being in a community of other graduate students to pilot my service and collect customer feedback, especially when I was building a minimum viable product. Their honest inputs have significantly propelled my venture forward.

What founder or entrepreneur inspired you to start your own entrepreneurial journey? How did he or she prove motivational to you? Sarah Powers, who was the year above me and the founder of Nemu, was incredibly helpful to my entrepreneurial journey. It was inspiring to see her, as another MBA student and female founder, create her venture during her time at Wharton, and she consistently directed me to resources that were beneficial to her.

Which MBA class has been most valuable in building your startup and what was the biggest lesson you gained from it? One of the most helpful classes I took was Entrepreneurial Communication with Professor Mark Zod. This class provided me with ongoing pitch practice and continual feedback from my classmates. Through this class, I learned about the importance of storytelling while delivering pitches, and the need to balance both pathos and logos throughout any presentation. Practicing with delivering pitches as short as 90 seconds helped crystallize the messages I needed to most clearly communicate.

What professor made a significant contribution to your plans and why? Professor David Hsu, who taught my Managing Emerging Enterprises class, would offer time to consistently meet with me and be a sounding board for how I was thinking about our product development and marketing. He was very helpful in exploring new marketing channels to pursue and new ways to incorporate user feedback into our service.

How has your local startup ecosystem contributed to your venture’s development and success?
I learned from other startup founders regarding what resources they found most helpful, such as what funding opportunities they sought or what legal services they recommended. Being surrounded by other students who were interested in venture capital also helped provide me with practice and feedback on my pitches before investors.

What is your long-term goal with your startup? Our long-term vision is to become the most accessible and affordable matchmaking service for those seeking long-term relationships.

Looking back, what is the biggest lesson you wished you’d known before launching and scaling your venture? I wish I knew more about the importance about launching a minimal viable product quickly, collecting customer feedback, and iterating based on these insights. I believe I spent too much time in the beginning aiming to create a “perfect” product before realizing the need to continually test and improve the service while it is operating in the hands of our customers.

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