Making $190,000 per month with an AI dating assistant

[jesrdking]

I found a completely bootstrapped business making $190,000 per month with an app that helps you flirt using AI. While I found it to be slightly dystopian, I couldn’t help read more about how they do it.

The problem the business solves is quite simple, but niche. You screenshot a message that you get on a dating platform, Snapchat, etc and upload it to the app. The app then gives you a flirty/ clever response to send back. The idea is that this will make you better at flirting, get you more dates, etc.

The app has 1.5 million downloads in just 4.5 months, proving that there is a market for this niche, somewhat gimmicky product.

There is a free trial and then users pay a whopping $7/week to use it.

The listing mentions that they haven’t done any Facebook or Google ads, which could be worth exploring. However I think something like this would really pop on Instagram and TikTok. You can see some TikTok examples from a competitor, Rizz (https://www.tiktok.com/@rizz.app). Influencer marketing would be the main marketing vehicle for a business like this, imo.

The idea of paying $7/week for a ChatGPT wrapper that helps you flirt was crazy to me. But it illustrates the fact that just because something is a wrapper, doesn’t mean it’s a bad business. This company (and others) was able to find a unique angle in the AI space, and effectively capitalized on it. They didn’t just build a generic PDF chat app (no hate on PDF chatting apps, some of them are doing really well). But I think this business perfectly illustrates that there are endless possibilities and angles out there with AI.

The business is currently selling for $3.5 million.

P.S. I write a weekly 5-minute digest about online businesses (like this one) selling for life changing amounts of money in my free newsletter, Startup Sphere.

 

[skye1300]

@jesrdking I’ve got couple friends that have built in this space. It’s cut throat and the operating margins are razor thin even with vector based cached conversations. Is someone doing this, yes, but I would never purchase a business in this area.

 

[strivingfollower]

@skye1300 So when OP says “making $190k a month” is that profit or revenue?

 

[moanalua]

@strivingfollower always revenue

 

[strings51415]

@skye1300 wrapper around chatgpt for this dumb apps doing just fancy prompting probably has 99% margin

 

[truthforsaints]

@strings51415 You obviously don't know shit about shit.

In the second you get into your app a large model inference process your margins get destroyed.

 

[itsdagis]

@truthforsaints I'm actually working on a different AI wrapper project. Could you go more into details? I know the margin was never going to be 99 or even 90, but I'm hoping for this project to still be fairly profitable. (SaaS, B2B idea so high subscription rates).

Does openAI API cost scale past the posted prices if you're large enough?

 

[truthforsaints]

@itsdagis It really depends on the way you use it in your app... You have the price per 1000 tokens in their site.

Try to calculate how many tokens will be sent in each api request... For example, if your app relies on a large context window, it means each request will cost you more...

The smaller the context window the better you will be able to keep those margins. In conversational usage for example, the context window usually should be larger.

 

[darlingdaughter]

@skye1300 I work in this space too and I'm not sure why they'd think that (excluding the 15-30% App store fee of course). I assume they are either using OpenAI's API (with gpt4 turbo for vision and gpt3.5 for lines) or something like Groq/Replicate, so the costs are fairly low. Not sure about their CAC but IMHO they are at >= 50%, which is far from "razor thin". Am I missing something?

 

[allison18]

@jesrdking Bro..

 

[edelgado2005]

@skye1300 If the margins are thin (in general, but especially with this, where the costs are so clear-cut), you're pricing wrong.

 

[jazzmaniac42]

@jesrdking Cofounder of the RIZZ app here. We got inspired to build RIZZ a while back when we noticed the sheer volume of people asking for dating conversational help in the Tinder subreddit. Tons of people, both guys and girls, struggle with online dating. In fact, the statistics show that most are not successful with it. So how can they improve? Many go on Reddit asking for help. Or asking their friends for advice. Most simply can’t afford a dating coach. I believe AI can level the playing field, enabling people to enhance their flirting skills and boost confidence when interacting with new people. We launched just over a year ago and have learned so much up to this point. We still have so much to do to make our vision a reality. If anyone wants to chat, feel free to DM here.

 

[handsfeet]

@jazzmaniac42 I love how business owners always try to portray themselves as having some great and noble aim like they're motivated solely to help humanity...

Dude, you're just taking advantage of desperate people and having them trick others into thinking that game they're spitting is coming from them when it's just chat gpt. Seems kinda unethical.

Having said that, I have no idea why anyone would pay for this when they could just use chat gpt for free to come up with lines for them if they're really that much in need.

 

[anewchild76]

@handsfeet There is this thing called "Learning", and this could actually teach people, so calling it unethical is a bit odd

 

[handsfeet]

@anewchild76 There is this thing called "impersonating" and that is actually deceiving people, so calling it unethical is totally not odd.

Now why don't you go "learn" the difference between using an AI to flirt for you and picking up some real game and talking to a lady with your own words by yourself.

 

[antuongpro]

@handsfeet And BRO, used to be tight game was an art... took ages to master that.

We're gonna be like our grandparents telling stories of walking 10 miles to school in waist high snow. Man, this pisses me off. Cheating on school work, FINE. But game, 'Rizz' as they say? That's sacred!

My friends used to laugh at me bc I read that book by Neil Strauss on PUAs. And I told them the word 'neg', lol. I thought I was cheating...

BUT I would LOVE to see Elon musk use this to respond when he gets haters making comments in media. THAT would be hilarious... Or to use if ur co-worker doesn't lock their computer when being away from it. I'd love to send some to random people in the company. "Hey Sylvie, it's Mohammed in Medical Affairs. I was wondering what kind of trouble you're getting into in accounting?" "Mohammed, I don't think we've met" "oooooh, u bad girl! I'm 2+2=4, too good too every forget". Lol so lame.

I love being in a serious meeting with someone lame whose 50+ (I'm 38) and doing that triangle gazing thing (eye, eye, lips, eye, eye, lips), licking my lips like I'm thirsty, holding my head in my hands like I'm in love, and progressively leaning in. Putting my hair behind my ear, they get weirded the F out. LOL. Then I act like THEY are acting weird for jumping back or stopping speaking.

God, but that's all because I PRACTICED. I SUFFERED and got ghosted, sounded stupid, etc.

 

[bee300]

@jazzmaniac42 Me

 

[scarlettlevittxoxo]

@jazzmaniac42 Any interest in building a similar app for deeper, emotional conversations? Would readily apply to your existing userbase.

 

[antuongpro]

@scarlettlevittxoxo What world are we living in? I hope you're thinking 'use it until you learn the concepts and do it for real after'

 

[amyramirez]

@jazzmaniac42 DM’d you, appreciate you coming in dude