Sacha Nasan is a dating expert and the co-founder of blind dating app Blindlee – a new dating service blending the free-flowing style of Tinder with the video function of Zoom.
Blindlee sets up strangers on blind dates using three minute blurred video calls. The two unfocused faces can instead refocus on shared chemistry or other interests before they lay eyes on each other online. After that three minutes, they can decide by mutual consent if they want to continue the connection.
Blindlee’s innovative concept has been featured on Business Insider, Forbes, Vox, Esquire, the WSJ, TechCrunch, Marie Claire and many other outlets.
Where did the idea for Blindlee come from?
Many people have ‘swiping fatigue’ since most dating apps today are based on the swiping mechanism, leading to snap judgments based on a brief digital profile with pictures. Dating apps today ignore what makes us unique – our personality traits – and profiles can be extremely superficial, sometimes even fake. So Glenn and I decided to develop Blindlee to make the process more transparent and safer while bringing a refreshing element to the world of dating apps by not having to judge a book by its cover (ie pictures) as first filter but instead on personality.
What does your typical day look like and how do you make it productive?
No day is similar to the previous one. In one day we sometimes focus on improving the app or fixing a bug while working on our marketing and branding, attending a podcast as guests, and replying to our users’ feedback. We keep it productive by spreading the tasks between us and being aggressive on time-management.
How do you bring ideas to life?
I love walking around and analysing random everyday objects or issues to determine if there is a problem to solve.
What’s one trend that excites you?
The recent paradigm shift to video dating, which until before the pandemic was a bit taboo. Nowadays it’s normal to ask to ask on a dating app to jump on a video call before meeting in person.
What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?
Every day I put aside 45-60 mins to learn something. It sets the tone for the day.
What advice would you give your younger self?
To start learning and developing yourself personally as young as possible. I’m still in my early twenties but I would have liked to have started learning to code earlier.
Tell us something that’s true that almost nobody agrees with you on.
That pineapple on pizza is delicious. It’s even a question we randomly ask during Blindlee video calls.
As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?
Try to understand as much as possible about different aspects to get the bigger picture. It helps to look and analyse things from a holistic perspective to understand how different parts work together and how they can be made more efficient. If you’re great at one thing, you might become head of that department but being good at different things (rather than great at one thing) is usually where the CEO comes in.
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business?
LinkedIn. Use LinkedIn to search and connect with relevant people to grow your business – whether it’s for hiring, finding a partner or even just getting feedback.
What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?
My first startup was a one-man show. I was naive and thought I could do things all alone but I quickly realized I was wrong. Don’t get me wrong, one-man startups exist but they are very rare. Nowadays I recognize the value of co-founders and a team.
What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?
A pill you can take which provides a protective layer to your skin against the sun – to replace the bothersome process of applying sunscreen.
What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why?
Echo from Amazon. Alexa really functions as a super useful virtual assistant with many different skills – and it’s a great speaker!
What is one piece of software or a web service that helps you be productive?
Calendly. It saves all the time going back and forth finding a suitable time to chat.
What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?
Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond. It looks at the evolution of different civilizations in history, analysing why some were superior to others to arrive at interesting conclusions.
What is your favorite quote?
“You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take” – Wayne Gretzky
Key Learnings:
- Try to learn and understand many different things to get good at many things rather than great at only one thing.
- Set goals and make adjustments only when necessary.
- Be aggressive with your time-management to stay productive.
- Age is just a number. Start as young as possible.
Carlyn runs the day-to-day publishing operation here at ideamensch and interacts with our awesome customers and entrepreneurs. She is likely editing this with a cat on her lap.