In 2009, Sunil Nagaraj launched Wings, a courting app that promised to rewrite the foundations of digital romance. By analyzing knowledge from Fb, Twitter, and even Netflix, it may establish appropriate matches with unprecedented accuracy.
Wings went viral. Nagaraj and his crew had been on the verge of one thing revolutionary. Or so it appeared.
However as matches rolled in, customers nonetheless most well-liked bodily attractiveness over frequent pursuits. Blinded by their preliminary success, Nagaraj resisted conforming to the courting panorama’s established norms. Satisfied they may reshape person habits, the crew leaned tougher into data-heavy matchmaking, even refusing to indicate images till compatibility had been rigorously verified. However because it turned out, the very components that made different courting apps frustratingly fundamental had been precisely what made them widespread.
Three years after launching, Wings filed for chapter. As soon as assured that he may “repair” the courting trade, Nagaraj had as an alternative realized a expensive lesson: Some conventions exist for a purpose.
Over the previous thirty years that Tom Eisenmann has taught starry-eyed founders at Harvard Enterprise…