Introducing Overtone

Ten years ago, almost to the day, I was heading home for the holidays feeling a mix of pride and unease.

Hinge had become a real player in the dating app world, but the industry was exploding in an unsettling direction. Swiping had taken over. People were matching, but few were truly connecting. As with social media, everything was optimizing for endless engagement and monetization — not for helping people form meaningful relationships.

The public’s sentiment was turning, and so was mine.

So I made one of the most impactful decisions of my life: to tear down Hinge as we knew it and rebuild from scratch. The intention was clear — to become the dating app to help people get off their phones and onto great dates. A dating app “designed to be deleted.”

That choice shaped everything Hinge has come to be. We built a culture around this higher-order philosophy, attracted team members who cared deeply about the mission, and reimagined dating in a way that actually prioritized quality over quantity. Today, Hinge is the leading dating app, setting up a date every two seconds and behind roughly one in ten engagements.

Words can’t express how proud I am of what we built and the team that made it happen.

And yet, as the cultural tides shift again, I’ve begun to feel a stir familiar to the one that sparked our reinvention ten years ago. Technology is evolving at an extraordinary pace — and it’s opening more possibilities, and even more questions…

The Promise and Peril of AI

Since starting Hinge, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how technology affects human connection — often in unintended ways. Social media promised to bring us closer together. Instead, it has displaced 70% of the time we used to spend with friends. The results are clear: more anxiety, more depression and more loneliness.

Now AI is taking things further. Algorithms are becoming increasingly sophisticated at curating — and now even generating — the most engaging content. Instead of just mediating our interactions with others, AI is now attempting to interact directly with us. Chatbot companions are on the rise. A third of U.S. teens report having a “relationship” with one. And leading tech CEOs are even promoting the idea that chatbots can replace the need for having actual friends.

I understand the appeal, especially given we are in the middle of a loneliness epidemic. AI is always there. It says what you want to hear, shows you what you want to see, and asks nothing in return.

But that is not a real relationship. Real relationships involve risk, vulnerability, effort and reciprocity — and that’s exactly what makes them meaningful. Without that, they become flatter, less satisfying, and more disposable.

Quality relationships are what make life worth living. So we should be very worried about what happens when people start choosing artificial intimacy over the real thing. We’ve already seen the prelude with social media: overstimulation and overconvenience keep us hooked while simultaneously dulling our appetite for the infinitely more fulfilling (and yes, challenging) analog version.

So, where do we go from here?

I believe AI holds tremendous promise, in all kinds of ways. But we’ll only realize that promise if we design products with meticulous intention, ethics intact, aligning with what we as humans require on the deepest level. AI should always stand behind us, not between us.

Dating, Updated

Which brings me back to dating. Now more than ever, we need to be championing real-world connection. And we’re struggling to rise to the challenge.

I know firsthand the incredible earnestness with which the team at Hinge pursues its mission. And yet I also know firsthand how many daters out there are feeling burned out, overwhelmed and increasingly hopeless. In our current paradigm, daters are swiping through hundreds if not thousands of profiles to get to a date. While Hinge continues to show outstanding growth, the overall category is struggling.

As I look to the future of dating, I believe we're at an inflection point where we can move beyond refining the existing model, and instead completely reimagine how we solve the persistent challenges daters face. This time not because the current model is broken, but because the possibilities have expanded. AI, if used correctly, can help us invent an entirely new way for people to find their partners that is far more personal, far more efficient, and far more effective. Think less like a social platform, more like the experience of working with an all-star personal matchmaker. A service that prioritizes getting to know you — and everyone else — so it can make curated, personalized introductions to people on your wavelength.

We are now at a point where this is possible. But it requires thinking from the ground up.

The Closing of an Incredible Chapter at Hinge

This is a wildly bittersweet moment. Hinge has been my home for nearly fifteen years. I’ve grown up with this company and worked alongside some of the most thoughtful, mission-driven, heart-forward people out there. The team and the business are stronger than ever, and I know they are well positioned for continued success under new leadership.

But I’ve always been a builder drawn to new beginnings. The possibilities emerging now — around AI and the future of human connection — feel like the early days of a budding new era. Solving this sort of puzzle requires full focus and a blank slate.

So after a decade and a half of the most meaningful work of my life, I’m stepping away from Hinge to start something new.

Introducing: Overtone

I’ve been working for the last year with a small team within Hinge, building a paradigm-shifting dating service called Overtone. And now we are stepping out on our own, as an independent organization committed to exploring what’s possible when you combine cutting-edge AI capabilities with deep respect for the messy, human journey of connection.

We want to help people form real, lasting relationships in a world that increasingly pulls us in the opposite direction. To create something more personal, more supportive, and more aligned with how people actually seek to experience dating today.

I’m approaching this new adventure with the same humility and beginner’s mind that I brought to Hinge’s reboot — guided by some basic core principles and a belief that we can do better. And ultimately, not just for the sake of dating. I believe our entire ecosystem of social technology can be more thoughtfully designed to support our need for real human connection.

My heartfelt thanks goes out to the entire Hinge team, to everyone who has trusted us with their stories, and to all who’ve been part of this journey.

More soon.