Morgan Vagts and Debbie Liknes find many current
dating apps to be somewhat shallow and unengaging.
“Most dating apps can be frustrating because
they put the focus on people’s appearance. When you connect with someone, you
don’t know much about them other than their looks, which doesn’t make it easy
to start a conversation,” says Vagts.
The South
Dakota Mines graduates decided to use their degrees in computer science to change
the game. They built a unique algorithm that connects users based on their
taste in memes. Their new app, Lafdr, which
launched Sept. 17, is revolutionary for connecting like-minded people, long
before anyone gets a chance to “swipe right.”
“Millennials brought dating online; Gen-Z has
brought memes into dating,” says Vagts.
More than 90% of current college students have used a dating app, Vagts
adds, and there are more than one million memes shared on platforms like
Instagram every day. “We think there is a real market for this app,” she says.
How users interact with the memes on Lafdr
allows the unique algorithm, built by Liknes, to connect users with similar
humor styles. “Memes are a great conversation starter,” says Vagts. “It keeps
the conversation light and lets people be themselves."
Vagts says the app isn’t only for those who want
to find a more authentic romantic connection. Users can choose to just find
friends or to simply browse memes on the app. “People connect through memes. If
you can laugh at a meme together, you know you have something in common,” says
Vagts.
Liknes and Vagts came up with the idea for Lafdr
while studying computer science at Mines. “We were just sitting in Debbie’s
living room, talking about the perils of online dating, and she joked about the
idea of a meme-based app. And I thought, yes.
That’s brilliant, let’s do it, and it evolved from there,” says Vagts.
The pair of students spent the next two years developing
the app. Lafdr went on to win fourth place at the South Dakota Governor’s Giant
Vision student business plan competition. Since their graduation in May 2021,
the business partners have been neck-deep in the project, “In total, there’s
four of us. We eat, sleep, and breathe Lafdr. It’s been 12-hour days working on
the app for a few months now to hit the deadline to launch this fall,” says
Vagts.
“Kudos to these computer science students for
using the skills they gained at Mines to build their own company. We’re always
proud when students use their education to change the world. This is exactly
the kind of innovation and entrepreneurship we encourage at Mines,” says Mines
President Jim Rankin.
Vagts adds high praise for those at Mines who
helped the business get to where it is today. “Mines helped pay for a
provisional patent on our technology, and they gave us prototype money to help
develop our app. They also gave us the resources to do well at the Governor’s
Giant Vision Competition,” says Vagts.
According to Vagts, Lafdr’s next step is fundraising. The team is
pitching their idea to a group of angel investors in October. “We know that
only a small percentage of venture capital investments go toward female-lead businesses.
We are hoping to break that trend with Lafdr,” says Vagts.
Find the app on iOS here and on Android
here.