Endgame, an online dating app founded by three female Auburn alumni, will launch in early November.
Maegan Renee, Braxlee Bynum and Candace Hancock aim to transform the dating scene by focusing on users’ core personality traits and life visions, unlike traditional dating apps.
“I always wanted to be an entrepreneur. When I was talking with Maegan and Baxlee, we decided that the dating scene needed to be changed. It’s incredibly shallow and surface-level,” Hancock said.
While all three creators attended Auburn University, they officially met in Florida. Renee and Bynum studied psychology, while Hancock studied apparel design.
Since both Renee and Bynum have their Ph.D. in psychology, they were able to provide their insights on the connection between human connection and behavior and how serious, long-lasting relationships are fostered.
“We really wanted to capture, in a different way and through different mechanisms, how people can match in compatibility through their core personality traits and their true interests, rather than a text-heavy profile, superficial photo or swipe roulette,” Bynum said.
The app involves a visual questionnaire where the user selects images they connect most with in regard to present and future desires. The use of visual connections, rather than providing information about oneself, allows the users to share authentic and realistic details about themselves.
The creators of Endgame are shown alongside the dating app's promotional slides.
“You can take as many pictures as you want and edit them however you want, but that doesn’t really show the real you. Our system is trying to get to that part of it,” Bynum said.
The process is designed to be fun and engaging, and users are unable to lie about their personal values through their chosen images.
The creators’ goal is to help form long-lasting relationships by focusing on individuals’ deeper beliefs and core values.
“When people choose their preference, it feeds into an algorithm of who they are and how they will match with other people based on similar interests,” Bynum said.
When creating the app, the creators discussed the importance of user experience by committing to elaborate research. They wanted to make sure their audience would have a successful experience by giving users the opportunity to fill out surveys to explain how their experience can be improved.
Users are encouraged to fill out the survey to convey what they believe needs to be changed when using the app.
The app’s key features include prompts created for appropriate conversation and a timestamp feature set in place to prevent ghosting.
“There’s such a problem with ghosting and people just disappearing on you, so we have certain timestamp features because we are all about creating a respectful, healthy dating culture, and that’s one of the things we'll address,” Renee said.
Endgame enforces respectful communication between users, reducing any form of ghosting and encourages genuine engagement between one another.
“We want to help people formulate ways to meet appropriately. One of the features that we have with our app is certain prompts, not prompts that will mislead a conversation or misguide conversation,” Renee said.
Endgame is expected to revolutionize the dating scene, offering a fresh perspective on love and connection. By prioritizing authenticity and compatibility, the app aims to help users find meaningful relationships that stand the test of time.
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