India’s new matchmaking destination – Aisle.co
Dating isn’t that difficult and complex thanks to the ease, technology provides.
Gone are those days when you had to request your friends to connect you to their friends and then set a date. Today, you could just swipe on different profiles, select a potential date and ask out. You not only get to know the interests of the potential date but also many more things giving you heads up for a good date.
But then dating in India is still very naïve and different. We might have people using Tinder or Thrill in India but then they are very few. This westernized dating concept doesn’t seem to work in India considering the various diversities we have prevalent here.
Indians are very choosy and not always prefer to hangout for a casual date. We love to meet and hangout with people we see a future, but then this is slowly getting the limelight.
It’s always been the parents, who have been setting up profiles of their daughters or sons on various matrimony websites and scouting for potential marriage partner. Bharatmatrimony and shaadi.com have been the testimonial to this process. But still today, almost most of these matchmaking sessions happen offline.
This traditional process is no more the way young India wants to go forward with. Indian youth wants to spend considerable time with their to-be-partner understanding each other and finding that connection. They aren’t for casual dates from Tinder or Thrill but aren’t ready for marriage proposals from shaadi.com too.
Able Joseph who had shifted his base from Bangalore to Dubai after a rough startup life faced the same problem at some point in his life. He wanted to spend some quality time with a good match before he could think of a marriage but wasn't able to find one. That's when he met his old friend, Srishti Kataria who was teaching psychology in Mumbai University. She too wanted to hangout with potential matches but always feared to go out on casual dates from these apps.
That's when; both decided that they should be the ideal ones to tackle this Indian matchmaking problem. They came up with Aisle.co, a matchmaking platform for singles.
They have positioned the platform between Tinder and shaadi.com. It’s more like a disrupted version of the traditional Indian matchmaking with the twist that couple spends time before they decide if they are ready to settle down.
Aisle is promoting this matchmaking journey as friendship, courtship, love then marriage as against the traditional websites which have this sequence exactly in reverse order.
Evolution of Indian Marriages
The platform currently is in alpha testing mode and is highly curated. So, ideally after landing on the platform’s home page, you register to start filling profile details and submit for review. Srishti manages the team that filters and looks for authenticity of profiles. They want to build a niche community with authentic profiles, that's the reason behind their long registration-approval process.
The signup form is very detailed giving enough room to list down interests that would in a way help you to get connected to the right partner. What's important here is that they have used urban elements that modern India should know about the other person before connecting with them.
Everybody loves music, but to what extent? Do they love music more than cooking? The 'Interest bars' could tell you that. It's also important to know if a person is spontaneous, brutally honest or wants to adopt a child. Aisle’s 'Preferences' section does just that.
Able with his rich experience working with startups in Dubai looks after the product and design. He is also involved personally in the positioning of the product and is very particular in it. He doesn't want this product to be compared even remotely to a casual dating platform or the age-old matrimonial websites that doesn't work for urban Indians. He wishes to carve a new niche in the market by building a closed community of like-minded Indian singles. And for this this reason Aisle will look for creative ways to promote their product.
The team is very focused to change the psychological process one usually takes for finding the right life partner or individuals who are looking for long term commitments.This startup is trying to solve a local social issue without much deviation from the traditional Indian way. A great product made in India for India seems to be the next big startup soon.
Aisle is when Tinder meets shaadi.com. Go check them out at http://www.aisle.co
