What I Learned Building a

Short summary

A founder shares lessons from building a dating app designed to minimize engagement and get users into real conversations fast. Key insights include designing from psychology research before mechanics, enforcing symmetric interactions to avoid anxiety, rejecting freemium to preserve product values, and recognizing that AI prototyping delivers polished surfaces but not working core mechanics. The app is being validated hyperlocally in Belgrade before any US expansion.

• •Design psychology constraints before mechanics — research must visibly shape user actions, not decorate them
• •AI prototyping produces polished surfaces fast but cannot yet design core interaction mechanics that actually work
• •Rejecting freemium on principle and validating hyperlocally first are deliberate trade-offs that preserve product integrity

Generated with AI, which can make mistakes.