We recently connected with Jarrell Green and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Jarrell, thanks for joining us today. Let’s talk about innovation. What’s the most innovative thing you’ve done in your career?
So I’ve started several businesses prior to my most recent entrepreneurial venture. But so far, this one is the most innovative, because it’s a VR/AR niche dating app. Not only that but my Co-Founder (Rex Gatling) and I decided to gamify the VR/AR dating experience.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is Jarrell A. Green. I am a first generation college graduate from St. Louis, Mo. I recently earned my Bachelors degree in Entrepreneurship with a 4.0 GPA from Herzing University. And for as long as I can remember, I’ve had an “outside the box” mentality. Which I believe a true entrepreneur has to be born with.
I have founded businesses in the past, but I got into the online dating industry because I noticed a trend and gap in the dating market while conducting an analysis for an assignment in one of my marketing classes in college. I also saw many people find companionship and love via dating apps, and believed in the power of dating online.
At that time, after reviewing other dating apps, I thought to myself, “what’s next for this industry?”, would it continue being a “swipe left/swipe right” environment forever? Also, during that time the Metaverse and virtual reality gaming had become more and more prevalent. Then one day, I saw a post on Instagram with my now Co-Founder Rex Gatling in it, wearing these weirdly cool sun glasses. Which turned out to be VR/AR glasses. Then it hit me! “VR/AR dating!” I reached out to him with my idea/concept, and he surprisingly saw my vision. That is where we founded our partnership.
In terms of problem solving, we are the only exclusively Vegan VR/AR dating app on the market. So we solve the problem for Vegans subscribing to dating apps where they don’t have many, if any Vegan dating options. Which is very important to a substantial number of Vegans today. Also a lot of people were/are bored with traditional dating apps. Another problem I believe we solve is making going out on dates safer while saving copious amounts of money at the same time.
I am most proud of launching the app on World Vegan Day last year. That in it self was unfathomable at a point in time. But we believed in ourselves and what we’re doing and saw the vision through to conception. It was a small, and arguably a widely unnoticed launch. But it happened and we couldn’t be more proud of it! We also just launched a bowling feature in the app. It’s pretty cool! Lastly, I’m proud of the growing amount of support we have been receiving from our internal and external stakeholders. This has truly been the most fulfilling entrepreneurial venture I’ve ever embarked on.
I want everyone to know that the Meet Vegan Bae Dating App is always improving to ensure users have a positive experience. We welcome your suggestions and respectful feedback to help us continue the journey of improvement. We appreciate you all immensely. Thank you!
Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?
Our initial capital to simply get started was not that bad fortunately. We are a few thousand in so far. We have been using the “sweat equity” and “bootstrapping” method to fund this venture. Work, save and invest is the name of the game!
Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?
There are two books that I’ve recently read in regards to entrepreneurship that I think anyone thinking of starting a business should read. They are “How to F*ck up Your Startup” by Kim Hvidkjaer and a book from the Shark Tank series entitled, “Jump Start Your Business”.
Contact Info:
- Website: Meetveganbae.com
- Instagram: Meet_veganbae
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/meetveganbae?mibextid=LQQJ4d
- Other: Founders IG pages: @jay_the_trainer @rex_gat102