Draw Your Way to Love with the Creators of Monet Dating: an Interview with Joanna and Jonathan

[UNPUBLISHED:] Tell us about yourselves.

[JOANNA:] I’m Joanna. I'm a sophomore at  U Penn. I'm taking a gap year. I work on Monet. 

[JONATHAN:] I'm Jonathan. I'm also a sophomore at U Penn and I mainly do the design work for Monet.

[UNPUBLISHED:] How many people are on your team working on Monet? 

[JOANNA:] There's five of us. It started with me and my friend Daniel, who goes to UCSB, and then  Jonathan and our other friend Marc joined really early on to help design stuff. Also, Abida does a lot of PR marketing stuff. It's been really fun to work with friends. 

[UNPUBLISHED:] How did you all meet?

[JONATHAN:] Joanna and Daniel were middle school friends and they grew up in the same school. Then Marc, me, and Abida went to their school in high school. That’s where we all became friends. 

[UNPUBLISHED:] Tell us about the dating app.

[JOANNA:] The idea is simply that you draw something for someone and that's how you match with them. We've had a lot of boring/interesting experiences on other dating apps so we basically set out to make something that was a little bit more fun, a little bit more engaging. Connecting with people online can be more than just a really dry conversation starter, it could be drawing something with humor, something with personality. We've been working on it for a couple of months and it's just really exciting that there's been such a huge response to it. I think people are so excited by the concept of it. They're looking for a space online in which they can connect in a more safe, less superficial way. 

[UNPUBLISHED:] How did you get the idea to start a dating app, specifically with drawing?

[JOANNA:] The idea was primarily my friend Daniel’s. Me and Jonathan are dating so we have only been spectators of people who have used dating apps before. Daniel, he's on the market, so he's been on, Bumble, Tinder, Hinge. I also went on these apps to test them when we were making the app so I've had a little bit of firsthand experience on them as well. There are a lot of aspects of the experience that are not that optimal. It's kind of an uncomfortable thing. It's really hard to get to know somebody in that context and to remove the pressure from a dating app. If you come out of this just making a friend that's our goal as well. 

[JONATHAN:] One of Daniel’s hardships with dating apps is that he feels that he's a bit of a dry texter. He enjoys the aspect of looking at a bunch of profiles but he really doesn't enjoy the conversation starter aspect of it. This is his project to make a dating app so he doesn't have to send a conversation starter again. You can just send a drawing. 

[UNPUBLISHED:] What is the technical process of creating an app?

[JOANNA:] We don't have that much formalized experience. Daniel and I had made a different app earlier this summer, we just took online courses and then worked on the app. I'm not like the most technical one on the team, it's mainly Daniel. With coding, it's great, because there are so many resources online to do it. It's like a great learning process to figure out how to solve problems. Our coding practices are probably not industry standard but it's working for us.

[UNPUBLISHED:] How many hours have you worked on it approximately?

[JONATHAN:] Fun fact, Joanna and Daniel just stayed up till 7 AM. They spent at least until three o'clock daily. That's been the case for the past four weeks. We moved to Portland together in this house and we've been really excited about getting it out. We've been setting ourselves deadlines and just doing whatever we have to do to get there. 

[UNPUBLISHED:] How has beta testing been going?

[JONATHON:] Really good actually. Just from a numbers perspective, we already have over 3000, close to 4000 users. We also started like a discord to be a space for people who really want to follow the process and be a part of the community. That discord has over 700 people now and it's really active and fun. So far it's been really good.

[UNPUBLISHED:] Since blowing up on TikTok, what doors have opened for you?

[JONATHON:] The main exciting thing for us is that there are so many people that want to be a part of what we're doing. There’s been attention from a variety of different communities. For the most part, we're trying to focus on just releasing this app. We want it to be on our own terms and time.

[JOANNA:] Attention from people is exciting but I think I'm more amazed by people who are actually using and investing in the app. We went into beta testing thinking we would get 200 people on their max and the overwhelming response is amazing. 

[UNPUBLISHED:] Has past dating experience influenced the creation of the app? 

[JONATHAN:] Abida on the team is currently dating someone and this is our first relationship. I think the app is more driven by the lack of relationships rather than previous good or bad relationships.

[JOANNA:] What we're trying to replicate is the fun or the magic of connecting with someone more on personality, which you get in real life rather than online. A lot of the ways that online communities are created, you don't really think of dating apps as that place to go and make friends and it'll be super fun. I think people are kind of enchanted by the fun of swiping through people. We wanted to make it a more intentional aspect. There's something about making something special for somebody else that we think is really cool. Someone will make a special drawing, just for you. It's personal. Also on the app, you can put a request for people to draw what you'd like them to draw. You could ask them to draw what they dreamed of last night or to draw both of you on your first day. 

[UNPUBLISHED:] What made you decide to focus on this full time?

[JONATHAN:] For Joanna and I, we had already decided to take a gap semester or a year. Remote learning is not the most exciting thing for both of us. I take a lot of studio courses and it's really hard for me to focus on a zoom call. The only other person besides us who's full time is Daniel. He recently took the quarter off because of remote learning. It's more plausible for this to be a full-time endeavor and it requires that time as well. 

[JOANNA:] I feel pretty lucky to get to experience this at a pretty fortunate time for myself. I was transferring schools and I didn't want to have my first year at Penn be online and very expensive. 

[UNPUBLISHED:] How have your family and friends reacted to the app? 

[JONATHAN:] In terms of friends, some of them initially, before we blew up, weren’t super on board. I feel like they thought it was a little cool thing but I don't know if they were the most excited about it. Now they're quite excited about it which is still great for us. In terms of family, I think we're all really blessed to have really supportive families who allow us to pursue things we’re interested in. They have really been excited about this whole process. 

[UNPUBLISHED:] Out of these three dating apps, which is your favorite and least favorite: Hinge, Tinder, and Bumble.

[JOANNA:] We both have only been on them, not in real pursuit of a partner, but more as a fun experience. For me, my favorite is Bumble because I use Bumble BFF which is super fun. It's really cool. A big thing we care about is that meeting people online is cool but it shouldn't just solely be reserved for people who are looking for romantic relationships. That's why I like Bumble; it's a little less grimy than some other apps like Tinder. Tinder is at the bottom of my list. I'm not a huge fan of it, it's also confusing for me to navigate. 

[UNPUBLISHED:] How has being a college student affected the way you made this app with dating apps being such a huge part of college culture? 

[JONATHAN:] We don't have a specific demographic in mind. I think it's fortunate, mainly because of TikTok and perhaps who we are, as college students, a lot of other college students have been really invested and interested in what we're doing. In terms of how college dating has shaped what we're doing, I think it's kind of the unseen influence of college dating. Us being college students creates an appeal for a lot of other people the same age. 

[JOANNA:] I think that a lot of the responses that we've gotten have been really powerful. People want to hop on and try it. People say, “I've had bad experiences on these other ones. This definitely seems like something fresh and new.” As college students, perhaps there's more of a desire to be social and meet the people around you so meeting people online shouldn't be difficult. I think it can be really low pressure and super fun. It doesn't necessarily have to be strictly romantic either. If you're just looking to make new friends or make new connections, it should be someplace that is fun but also safe and hopefully sparks a friendly conversation and connection beyond.

[UNPUBLISHED:] Do you have an expected release date for the final app?

[JONATHAN:] As far as our matching launch, it'll be this Friday. Right now you can't see any real people but when matching releases, you'll be able to see everyone. You'll be able to see thousands of other people. The idea is to send them a drawing and they'll be able to accept or reject it, and you'll be able to start chatting with them. In terms of the full app, that's a bit TBD.