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Vivek Jain is a seasoned entrepreneur, finance executive, actor, tennis addict and is now dedicated on helping people find love through his new dating app LOKOā¦.but is first and foremost a dedicated father and son fromĀ Regina, Saskatchewan.
Ā “If you can dream it, it’s possible.”
Tell us about LOKO How did you come up with this idea?
Vivek Jain: It all began with a comment my daughter made during a movie night: āDaddy, you always take care of me and my sister, but who takes care of you? You should get a girlfriend.ā
Being a single dad was never a big deal for me, but this hit hard. It made me realize that I needed to make finding a significant other more of a priority in my life. Iāve always been skeptical of dating apps, and up until this comment Iād been trying the old fashioned way. But with my busy schedule as an entrepreneur and being a parent of two girls, it became evident that I wasnāt going to meet someone out in the real world.
So I fired up the popular dating apps, and itās safe to say I was underwhelmed. I went through online datingās vicious cycle: I went into the process optimistic, gave it my full effort, became dejected, and then shut down the apps altogether to focus on family and career.
One evening I went over to my friend Normās houseāāāthe comedian Norm MacDonaldāāāto vent about my recent first dates that went nowhere. Norm wanted to get to the bottom of the problem.
The headaches were obvious: endless swiping, text conversations that go nowhere, matches who are nothing like their profiles suggest. This all leads to the biggest problem, Norm and I realized: first dates. They rarely go well. They seemed like an inefficient use of time, when free time was so precious to begin with.
We wondered how we could we make an app that would lead to more meaningful dates. We talked well into the night and in the end LOKO was born.
The idea behind it is to eliminate the biggest frustrations with online dating, and to help people make sincere connections. LOKO is the worldās first video-only online dating app, and itās the only app that holds matches accountable to meet in real life.
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How does LOKO work?
Youāll only agree to meet in person if you know thereās a connection that points to a meaningful first date. Once youāve hung up, if you havenāt agreed to meet or exchange contact info, you will not be able to match or communicate with each other via the app again. This is to encourage users to actually get together for the kind of magical, face-to-face dates where you spend the whole evening getting to know each other, instead of getting acquainted in back-and-forth text exchanges.
How have you been able to grow LOKO?Ā
Vivek Jain: We are still in the early stages of our growth plan, but our calendar over the next few months is action packed and sets LOKO up nicely to make a significant impact. I credit this to being fortunate enough to attract a team of top executives in their respective fields from development, public relations, marketing and entertainment.
Teach us something we donāt know about.
Vivek Jain: One of the most common questions we get asked about LOKO is how do you address nudity and obscenity with a video only dating app? We believe video is the future of online dating and to make this a reality users need to know this is not a risk in their user experience. Ā We take this issue very serious and have spent a lot of development time ensuring a safe environment for users. Any videos must be approved by an administrator before the user community can view it. Ā The first line of defense is built-in artificial intelligence which weeds out any inappropriate videos. To add another layer of defense, the administrator, who is a human, goes through the videos and must approve it before it goes out to the LOKO community.
Where do you see yourself and LOKO in a couple years? Whatās your dream?
Vivek Jain: Ideally, in a couple of years LOKO is viewed as a disruptor or trendsetter in the online dating space. Ā That LOKO is talked about as the company that changed the landscape of dating apps where singles are able to use technology to have more meaningful dates, and moved society away from a hookup culture to one where romance is again in style.
Social accounts: Personal Instagram Ā Company Instagram
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