In 2019, three French guys who had just graduated from college opened a video chat site called LuckyCrush. It was like a sign. The idea is simple: on LuckyCrush, two users are randomly put in touch with each other through live video chat. Men are only linked to women, and women are only linked to men.
The chat can last anywhere from a few seconds to several hours, but it stops as soon as one of the partners clicks “next,” which puts them in touch with a new random person right away. What is the goal? Virtually, quickly, and briefly flirting with a stranger, without meeting in real life and without giving away your identity. In just one year, the team’s website had 10 million users, and it turned into a very successful startup business that made its owners $3 million a month. We talked to the CEO, Jay, who told us more about this amazing business story and how the COVID19 lockdown helped them grow.
Who started LuckyCrush?
“We are three friends between the ages of 20 and 30.” We were still going back and forth between jobs, freelancing, and college until two years ago. One of us used to work in web development, another in engineering, and I used to teach business. We’ve always known we wanted to start a big business. We’re interested in two things: social interactions online and automated businesses (the kind where tasks like getting new users can be done automatically and the business can grow quickly). A third thing that our business ideas must have is having fun. We’ve always tried to come up with fun things to talk about or ways to show things about our society. I would say that what makes our team unique is that we are businesses who focus on data. When it comes to product strategy or getting new users, we don’t use our gut feelings. Instead, we make all of our choices based on testing and analysing data. The mind is where the best ideas come from.
They’re already here. There are a lot of metrics and research subjects that showed the market for something like LuckyCrush was ready. For example, there are more and more relationships that stay virtual on dating app chats, and a lot of people are shy and feel more comfortable talking to strangers through videoconferencing tools. This is where thoughts live. If this is true for coming up with ideas, it’s also true for making products and getting new users. Don’t think about whether the background of your new ad should be yellow or purple. Just try out as many choices as you can at the same time and pick the one that gives you the best return on investment. In the very competitive world of the Internet in 2021, this is the only way to do well.
Who started LuckyCrush?
“We are three friends between the ages of 20 and 30.” We were still going back and forth between jobs, freelancing, and college until two years ago. One of us used to work in web development, another in engineering, and I used to teach business. We’ve always known we wanted to start a big business. We’re interested in two things: social interactions online and automated businesses (the kind where tasks like getting new users can be done automatically and the business can grow quickly). A third thing that our business ideas must have is having fun. We’ve always tried to come up with fun things to talk about or ways to show things about our society. I would say that what makes our team unique is that we are businesses who focus on data. When it comes to product strategy or getting new users, we don’t use our gut feelings. Instead, we make all of our choices based on testing and analysing data. The mind is where the best ideas come from.
They’re already here. There are a lot of metrics and research subjects that showed the market for something like LuckyCrush was ready. For example, there are more and more relationships that stay virtual on dating app chats, and a lot of people are shy and feel more comfortable talking to strangers through videoconferencing tools. This is where thoughts live. If this is true for coming up with ideas, it’s also true for making products and getting new users. Don’t think about whether the background of your new ad should be yellow or purple. Just try out as many choices as you can at the same time and pick the one that gives you the best return on investment. In the very competitive world of the Internet in 2021, this is the only way to do well.
Where did the thought come from?
“Like I said, ideas for us come from thought.” A lot of people are shy. A lot of people think that dating takes a long time when all they want to do is flirt with someone. Most of the people on random chat sites are guys looking for women who don’t exist because the sites don’t control and give women a safe place to be. The result was clear: making a website or app that lets anyone flirt with a stranger virtually through live video chat with just one click. Also, men would only be matched with women and women with men. Finally, there would be a strong system of auto-moderation that lets users report other members and, if necessary, bans them. This is how LuckyCrush got started. What’s the difference between LuckyCrush and an app? If you’re on a PC or a phone, you can use any browser to go to the LuckyCrush video chat site. You only need to connect to the Internet and have a camera on your gadget. These days, almost all laptops and smartphones arrive with cameras. After that, all you have to do is put in https://www.luckycrush.live, choose your gender, and click “start.”
In less than 3 seconds, you’ll be matched with a random person of the opposite gender. It’s easier to get to if it’s a website instead of an app. A lot of people still don’t want to download things. Imagine that you are trying to get people to download something from you when all you have is an app. They haven’t even used your service yet. This doesn’t make sense. People can quickly test your value offer with a website. It’s an easier way to do things. As a joke, I often say that all MVPs (Minimum Viable Products) should be websites instead of apps to get the most conversions on the first try. Of course, this only works for some services. That’s the only thing business owners should think about when they first start up.
What is the best way to make money on LuckyCrush?
“The business plan is easy to understand and is based on how the first dating sites worked.” When people look for love or flirting partners online, there are always more guys than women. It’s true. Guys are asked to buy extra credits after they use their daily free chat time on LuckyCrush so they can start a virtual date with a woman with just one click and not have to worry about running into other guys looking for the same thing, which can happen on other random chat sites. This lets us put money into improving the technical side of the site and running ads that are 90% aimed at women. We’re the first chat site with at least half of our users being women. Men’s limited free time and the sale of credits also help us control the number of men and women on the site, which is our major goal. It would be unfair to pair too many men with too few women, so men would have to wait in queue to be paired with a woman. So that doesn’t happen, we police entries so that there are always about 50/50 guys and girls online at all times.
The truth is that LuckyCrush is great, especially for men who don’t have to wait more than two seconds before they are set up with a female partner via live video chat. This isn’t found anywhere else. Yes, I will say that since I started the company, but I also know that we made something that makes people who try it say “WOW.” We know this because a lot of people are emailing us and saying that we’ve made something great. This really makes us want to keep adding to the site and making it better.
Did you run into any problems?
“Of course.” It wasn’t at all simple. Because of how the site is set up, there must be an equal number of men and women online in the first minute after it goes live. And it’s not easy to do this. We’re not going to talk about how we get new users in this piece, but we will say that it takes a lot of money and good data and analytics skills. We were losing more money than we were making at first, but after three months, we started making money. It wouldn’t have worked without very powerful data analytics tools that helped us finetune our acquisition strategy and put our money where it would get the most people to our site as quickly as possible.
What is LuckyCrush going to do next?
“Building the community, the site, and its features.” We have already had offers to buy out our company from financial funds, internet service providers, and other businesses. The first one came three months after we started. We turned down all of the offers, though, because our only goal is to keep making LuckyCrush better. Together with big names in the tech and user acquisition industries, we’re strengthening our position in the market and making it a place you can’t miss if you’re bored at home tonight!”
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