The Apprentice runner-up Vana Koutsomitis is now looking to raise £120,000 for her dating app, DatePlay, through equity crowdfunding platform Seedrs.
DatePlay is described as an app that combines dating and games. It uses fun, easy-to-play games to learn more about the users and increase the quality of matches. Free app users will notably have all benefits of the dating and gaming concept while premium users will be able to access other features including increased messaging, messaging into new locations, invitations to exclusive events and more.
Developers of DatePlay revealed they are in the final stages of building the app and are gearing up to launch for beta testing this fall, with a full roll-out and marketing launch to reportedly coincide with the next season of The Apprentice on BBC1. The app already has 20,000 sign ups. Funds from the campaign will be used to complete the app, and the remaining cost will be used through the launch phase.
On Monday, Koutsomitis sat down with RadioTimes to discuss Sugar and DatePlay:
“I want to show Lord Sugar that he was wrong and that he should have invested in DatePlay. So that’s what I’m going to be focusing on. I knew what the numbers were, so I knew even though Lord Sugar didn’t agree with me, I knew I was right because I’ve worked in this industry before. I had done my market research so I knew how much it was going to cost me and I went out there and put together my savings and my business partner put together his savings and we were able to really get started on the project.”
Vana also noted that while she is on good terms with Sugar but doesn’t agree with his decision:
“I think that it’s important for investors to believe in you. So I actually wouldn’t want Lord Sugar to put money in at this point because I don’t think it really makes sense. I want him to believe in it first. I want him to see that we can get traction and then maybe at a later date he can invest.”
In regards to life after the show, Koutsomitis added:
“Since the show I’ve actually been in touch with the CEO of match.com, the CEO of eHarmony – so I’ve made sure to keep those relationships. What I’ve realized is that a lot of them completely support DatePlay. So it’s about staying persistent and when someone knocks you down once and says, ‘Oh, it’s not going to work’, don’t just give up on that because it only takes one person to say yes for it to work. You can have one hundred people say no, but it just takes one person to say yes to invest in you, to bring you forward.”
The campaign is set to run for the next two months. Check out Vana’s full interview with RadioTimes below.
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