For those of you who haven’t heard of Amanda Bradford, she is the Founder and CEO of The League, the exclusive dating app designed to create power couples.
Global Glam interviews Amanda and get’s the inside scoop on the most coveted dating app that successful singles are craving to be a part of.
Hot Seat Questions:
Name: Amanda Bradford
Amanda Bradford
Age/ Millennial: 31, Standford Graduate
Residence(s): San Francisco, CA
What gets you in a creative mood: I’m creative at night when everyone else is asleep and tend to watch inspirational Ted Talks or read medium blogs to get in the mood!
Your Go-To Apps: Anything on-demand that allows me to get more done in my day: Wash.io, Postmates, Instacart, etc.
Secret Vice: Netflix and Chill… but by chill I mean solo, in my sweats with a glass of wine!
Haute Spot(s): My couch!
Don’t Leave Home Without: I leave home without most things! My head is running 100 MPH. If I can at least remember my WeWork access card I consider that a good day!
Role Models:
My role model when I was a girl was a 25 year old fictional computer scientist CIA agent in a Patricia Cornwell series – that’s how few ‘real’ role models I had. I think having more relatable role models to us in Silicon Valley is helpful as it shows us powerful, ambitious women can have family and a career, but I do think we have a dearth of younger, more relatable role models on the main stage that I feel would make more of an impact on our younger generation. Visibility is crucial to breaking down stigmas.
Single or Not Single?
I am currently single, however I did meet my last boyfriend at a League Event! The events are great as they allow you to meet your matches offline. Many of our users say that they are better offline then they are online, and I say- prove it!
Lunch, Coffee, or Dinner for a First Date?
None of the above! Drinks with plans to meet up with friends after. If it’s going great you can have another drink, if you can tell within the first 10 minutes 1 drink is enough, you have an easy out! Recently I’ve been telling my League matches to meet me at League events! It’s a lot less pressure and a great way to get to know multiple matches at the same time! It’s all about opportunity cost and time efficiency!
Dealbreaker:
I’m looking for an equal. This was maybe the hardest to find; a guy who not only wouldn’t feel threatened or intimidated by dating someone who was equally (if not more) successful than he, but that he would find that trait attractive and desireable. I work until midnight or 1 A.M. on most weeknights, I don’t cook, I don’t clean, I get my laundry delivered, I don’t watch TV, and when I do have free time it’s usually booked with work obligations or special occasions for friends that I would be remiss not to attend. I’m also incredibly opinionated and stubborn, so let’s just say if you bundle all that up I’m not exactly the 1950’s housewife that’s waiting for her hubby to come home from work with fresh pot roast on the table. Add in my strong desire to date someone of my height or taller AND someone I find attractive (hey, I never said I wasn’t a little bit superficial), who also shared my same snarky sense of humor; you can see the odds of me finding mr. right at the local yuppie bar was around 1: 1,000,000.
Describe The League:
When and What was the turning point that really propelled you towards creating this app?
After years of working hard to advance my career and getting my MBA, I entered back into the world of singledom after the end of a 5 year relationship and this is when I came up with the idea for The League. It became clear that I had effectively qualified out a large pool of guys that were simply not interested in dating a career-focused (“alpha” female) with little interest in playing the ‘traditional’ doting girlfriend. And to be fair, I qualified out guys that didn’t share my same drive to achieve, level of intellect, or desire to be in a relationship where our careers and social lives were of equal importance. I wanted a dating community of intelligent, educated people who are seeking a modern, egalitarian relationship.
Other benefits The League subscription entails for a member?
Those who choose to be apart of our pilot membership are those who truly support or mission to keep The League selective and high-quality by paying annual dues to help support us building out a national community! Members get insider perks, VIP status, privileges and power!
At what point did you add in the networking aspect? (We love this by the way!) Was it in the initial plan?
Our groups/events are not supposed to eliminate dating or romance- it just means those connections can form around interests rather than at a giant bar meet up or on an awkward coffee date. The overall goal is to turn The League into a members-only club, with a killer singles scene.
Are you on The League?
Of course! I am on it from all perspectives: user, member, product tester etc. Most of features we change and implement have come directly from me and the League team all engaging in the app! Our community is the most important and valued asset! As we continue to grow, we will make sure that every employee [joins The League].
How would you describe your experience in a tweet (with hashtags)?
#getmeofftinder #singleisin
Could you see taking the League further than an app?
The overall goal is to turn The League into a members-only club, with a killer singles scene
What roadblocks did you overcome in creating The League?
I find most investors, potential employees, and media/press assume I am not technical and that someone else built and manages the software. In fact, I am the one that wrote the initial algorithms, spec’d out the prototype and hired all the engineers, created the designs, and I am in the code day in and day out QA’ing releases and writing SQL queries. I was recently on a panel with the Chief Data Scientist at Match and the CTO of Zoosk (both men) talking algorithms and I think the audience was surprised that I could hold my own. It frustrates me when people assume I’m just an ‘MBA’ with a powerpoint deck, a great network, with no real concept of technology. I pair code with my engineers and I make changes directly to the code-base. Now that’s not to say the engineers I’ve hired can’t all code circles around me – because they can – but I do consider myself a technical founder.
Tips for members to get off the waiting list?
We prioritize paid members, then VIP ticket holders, then users who have made a referral. Think of it like the priority line at an airport. We then have an internal system that shortlists groups of users based on a variety of factors: degree, education institution, professional title (or past professions), industry, number of referrals, and, finally, the number of users inside that fit their preferences (e.g. if you’re extremely picky you may wait much longer). We then have a team of specialists that review profile photos and selects the draft for that day or week.
What’s a good “League Score” to have?
Our All-Stars are those who are performing in the top 20%
What kind of algorithms did you come up with do decide someone’s flakiness and pickiness? Brilliant by the way.
Most flaky looks at a person former matches and how engaged (or disengaged) they were while they were matched with someone. It is also based on # of responses, response rate and time. Those who ghost frequently are docked!
Pickiness is based on your preferences. Those who have tighter preferences may have a lower # of potentials to choose from so we may wait longer to draft picky people in!
-GG
Image Courtesy of The League
