My startup helps people with disabilities find love. Here’s what I learnt so far.

If you met me in the year 2013, you could have easily passed me off as a recent college graduate trying to find my way through the chaos of recruitment, peer pressure, salary packages, application to foreign universities, MBA and everything else that a 21-year-old young person is usually concerned about.

But unlike others, I wasn’t going to give in to the next best thing that would be a stepping stone to my career. To be honest, I had always been curiosity-driven, and not career-driven.

Hence to avoid the noise after graduation, I packed my backpack and went to Brazil till my bank balance turned zero. I only came back after three months of living it all with no regrets. I partied all night daily at Lapa, went home only past sunrise and explored Rio de Janeiro in the daytime. If life ever told me I was going to be an entrepreneur, I would either forget about that thought in a second, or laugh it off.

At Bananal Point, Rio de Janeiro

Entrepreneurship happened to me by accident. I had no interest in either starting up or becoming a billionaire. Starting up was definitely by chance and not by choice.

At the age of 23, I founded the world’s first matchmaking app focusing on helping people with disabilities and health disorders find love. The experience changed me for the better.

Here’s what I’ve learnt working on my startup so far.

Do things that don’t scale

Only this year did I read about Paul Graham’s blog on doing things that don’t scale.

Surprisingly enough, this post was published on July 2013, exactly a year before I launched Wanted Umbrella, a matchmaking boutique agency focusing on people with disabilities.

I managed to handpick 100 profiles from various cities and set up Skype calls for people to meet each other and decide if they wanted to go on a date, or help their families meet for the purpose of matrimony. I also charged them a minimal fee for this service, to ensure that there is a willingness to pay, since I saw a business opportunity in this untapped market from day one.

Photo credit: SlideShare

This offline matchmaking agency was not scaleable, which I only realised later when I was struggling to handle more than 150 offline matrimony forms and biodata. However, starting a matchmaking agency was the best decision I ever made. Not only did I understand the problem at the root, but I also got to speak to customers first-hand to find out their motivation to find a life partner, and their pain-points in doing so.

This saved me a lot of time when I decided to pivot to a mobile app. My existing customers made this way easier than it looked, by telling me how they used existing apps, and what they would prefer if this was to go digital.

Bootstrapping our mission so far