Highlights
- Brendan Alper presents Hater, a unique dating app that matches users based on shared dislikes.
- The entrepreneur approached the Sharks seeking $200,000 for 5% equity on Shark Tank.
- The app gained rapid popularity, with 500,000 active users shortly after its launch, but had yet to be monetized.
Overview
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Name | Hater |
| Founder | Brendan Alper |
| Industry | Dating Apps, Technology |
| Product | Dating app that matches users based on shared dislikes |
| Funding | Sought $200,000 for 5% equity on Shark Tank |
| Investment Ask | $200,000 |
| Equity Offered | 5% |
| Valuation | $4 million |
Brendan Alper hopes to find some love in the Shark Tank when he pitches Hater, a dating app that matches people based on what they hate, in episode 909. Alper is a former Goldman Sachs financial guy who turned to comedy writing when he realized finance wasn’t his cup of tea. The idea for Hater initially was a joke, but he soon realized it was based in real psychology.
A 2006 study in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin argued that “people readily connect when they have a third entity to jointly demean.” Armed with an idea and a bit of academic proof, Alper made his app into a Tinder-like product that asks people to swipe up or down for “love” or “hate,” and right or left for “like” or “dislike.”
Subject matter on the app ranges from politics to celebrities to food, sports and more. The app does not use or approve of hate speech in any way. There are over 3000 topics in the app – chosen by the Hater team – and frequently include trending topics. Once you swipe your “hate,” “loves,” etc, the app matches you with folks that have similar interests and it uses an algorithm to calculate compatibility. After that, it works like other dating apps, allowing users to view matches and choose who they’d like to meet.
Hater debuted just before Valentine’s Day, 2017 and rocketed to over 200,000 users. Whether it stands the test of time remains to be seen, but a Shark’s capital and cache is something Mr. Alper would LOVE for his app.
Hater Company Information
Video
Posts about Hater on Shark Tank Blog
Hater Shark Tank Recap
Brendan enters seeking $200,000 for 5% of his business. He explains the app and how it works, then has a demo for the Sharks. He displays a variety of topics on a screen and asks the Sharks whether they love it, are neutral about it or hate it. When the experiment is done, the app says Rohan and Barbara would be a good match.
They have 500,000 active users but have not monetized the app yet. To get things started, he cleared out his 401K and got $500,000 in venture funding. Daily active users are only 8000-10,000 which Mark says is low.
Did Hater Get A Deal?
Rohan goes out because of the low usage. Barbara offer $250,000 for 5%, but she wants an answer right away. Then Lori jumps in and offers $200,000 for 10% and says she’ll build a brand around the app. Since Brendan didn’t give her an answer, Barbara goes out. Mark says he can help with celebrity endorsers and offers $200,000 for 7.5% plus 2.5% advisory shares. Brendan says he wants to hear from Robert and Robert offers $250,000 for 15% with Barbara kicking in another $250,000 making the offer $500,000 for 15%. Brendan elects to take Mark’s offer.
Hater Shark Tank Update
The Shark Tank Blog constantly provides updates and follow-ups about entrepreneurs who have appeared on the Shark Tank TV show. The deal with Mark did close, but unfortunately this business shut down in June, 2019 – about a year and a half after airing on Shark Tank. Brendan now lives in Stockholm, Sweden and has a new app called Everbloom which allows you to “transform your videos into beautiful stories.”
See what else is new! View other businesses featured in this episode.
