By no means suppose you’ve outgrown actuality checks
In 2009, Sunil Nagaraj launched Wings, a relationship app that promised to rewrite the principles of digital romance. By analyzing information from Fb, Twitter, and even Netflix, it might establish appropriate matches with unprecedented accuracy.
Wings went viral. Nagaraj and his crew have been on the verge of one thing revolutionary. Or so it appeared.
However as matches rolled in, customers nonetheless most popular bodily attractiveness over frequent pursuits. Blinded by their preliminary success, Nagaraj resisted conforming to the relationship panorama’s established norms. Satisfied they might reshape consumer habits, the crew leaned tougher into data-heavy matchmaking, even refusing to indicate pictures till compatibility had been rigorously verified. However because it turned out, the very elements that made different relationship apps frustratingly fundamental have been precisely what made them standard.
Three years after launching, Wings filed for chapter. As soon as assured that he might “repair” the relationship trade, Nagaraj had as an alternative realized a expensive lesson: Some conventions exist for a purpose.
Over the previous thirty years that Tom Eisenmann has taught starry-eyed founders at Harvard Enterprise…
