Why Kippo CEO David Park Sees Social Gaming as the New Way to Date

Katherine Abando
Katherine Abando is a lifestyle writer and social media producer from Los Angeles. Her coverage interests include internet culture/tech and Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) identity. She enjoys learning about emerging entrepreneurs and digital trends that pop up on her social media feed. Follow her on Twitter @kaband0.
Why Kippo CEO David Park Sees Social Gaming as the New Way to Date

Kippo, a startup that makes a dating app for gamers was created by an ex-Wall Street trader and Raya engineer whose codes helped predict the success of stocks.

But David Park said Kippo doesn't believe in algorithms. The dating app for gamers lets users sign up to create profiles where they can highlight their favorite games, astrology signs and even has their type of personality. The app matches users, who can then chat and play games with each other. Although it's free, there's a $9.99 premium version.


The idea of an app without algorithms is a bit contradictory, coming from what's known as an algorithmic trader, whose startup uses codes to match people.

"An algorithm implies that, if there's enough information about you, the perfect algorithm will spit out the one perfect person for you," he explained. "And then that's it, you don't have to do anything, you don't have to use a dating app. It just tells you who the person is supposed to be with and game over. Right? We don't think that that's the end game."

Instead, he has an algorithm to fix the algorithm.

"We're going to figure out a way that you can do as little as possible, through our super-advanced algorithm," he said. "And our philosophy is we want to make a fun experience so that you enjoy dating, you enjoy meeting people, and you enjoy this entire experience."

Park, an avid gamer, said he thought gaming and dating were a perfect match. Gamers already loved to interact online. They don't want to play alone. Gaming with someone takes the pressure off of dating. It's a shared experience. In the early days of Kippo, Park met his current girlfriend on the app. Going a year and a half strong, gaming is an activity that both of them enjoy together with playing games, like Blade and Soul and It Takes Two.

"At the end of the day, the best environment to get people to be open to meet each other is one where they're comfortable, and they're having fun," he said. "So the goal for Kippo is to create a fun environment. I think a lot of dating apps have this stiffness to them, where it feels like you're going to a speed dating event, and there's a lot of pressure, and everyone's there for the same reason: dating. But if you say, 'Hey, this is a great place to meet new people.'"

Last year, Kippo raised a $2 million seed funding. It's using the cash to revamp the app. with the emphasis on 'experience'.

@chalupabatmangg

We don’t do any of this bs at Kippo. We’re not scummy like that. #datingapp #kippoapp #sus #scam

Early in his career, Park worked on Wall Street as a quantitative analyst also known as an algorithmic trader, using algorithms to predict the performance of tech companies. It was a prelude to his time at Raya, a celebrity dating app.

After he created the company with Cheeyoon Lee, he began talking on TikTok about dating app algorithms and scams, sometimes deriding other apps for "selling" data.

"Three ways that dating apps are scamming you—number one dating apps will create fake profiles of hot girls and guys and they will show it to you first especially new dating apps," he said in one video posted.

(..) Number two dating apps will hold back your matches unless you start paying (..) Number three dating apps are selling your data and it's scary how they know you based off your swiping patterns."

For his part, Park said they are focusing on getting 10 million Kippo users. The app had about 25,000 users per month last year.

But Park thinks gaming is evolving with esports competitions and spaces like Twitch where gamers can livestream their play. Even Alexandra Ocasio Cortez has used as a platform to reach her constituents. Dating is no exception. The pandemic saw record levels of growth in gaming, which is predicted by some to reach more than $200 billion by 2024.

"Everyone is becoming a gamer to some capacity," Park quipped. "If you look at Gen Z, pretty much all of them play some sort of social video game because video games are becoming more of a social thing than just an activity to do."

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LA Latino/a Founders On Why Authenticity Matters in Tech

Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

LA Latino/a Founders On Why Authenticity Matters in Tech
Decerry Donato

As one of the most diverse cities in the world, Los Angeles is home to almost 5 million people who identify as Hispanic or Latinx. Yet, many feel they still lack representation in the city’s tech space.

“I can safely say that last year’s LA tech week hosted all of the events on the west side, and very few were focused on telling Latino and Latina entrepreneurial stories,” said Valeria Martinez, investor at VamosVentures. “We wanted to change that this year.”

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LA Tech Week Day 3: Social Highlights
Evan Xie

L.A. Tech Week has brought venture capitalists, founders and entrepreneurs from around the world to the California coast. With so many tech nerds in one place, it's easy to laugh, joke and reminisce about the future of tech in SoCal.

Here's what people are saying about day three of L.A. Tech Week on social:

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LA Tech Week: Female Founders Provide Insights Into Their Startup Journeys

Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

LA Tech Week: Female Founders Provide Insights Into Their Startup Journeys
Decerry Donato

Women remain a minority among startup founders. According to Pitchbook, even though women-led startups in the United States received a record $20.8 billion in funding during the first half of 2022, U.S. companies with one or more female founders received less than 20% of total venture funding in 2022. U.S. companies solely led by female founders received less than 2% of the total funding.

The panel, titled Female Founders: Planning, Pivoting, Profiting, was moderated by NYU law professor Shivani Honwad and featured Anjali Kundra, co-founder of bar inventory software Partender; Montré Moore, co-founder of the Black-owned beauty startup AMP Beauty LA; Mia Pokriefka, co-founder and CEO of the interactive social media tool Huxly; and Sunny Wu, founder and CEO of fashion company LE ORA.

The panelists shared their advice and insights on starting and growing a business as a woman. They all acknowledged feeling pressure to not appear weak among peers, especially as a female founder. But this added weight only causes more stress that may lead to burnout.

“The mental health aspect of being a founder should not be overshadowed,” said Kundra, who realized this during the early stages of building her company with her brother..

Growing up in Silicon Valley, Kundra was surrounded by the startup culture where, “everyone is crushing it!” But she said that no one really opened up about the challenges of starting your own company. .

“Once you grow up as a founder in that environment, it's pretty toxic,” Kundra said. “I felt like I really wanted to be open and be able to go to our investors and tell them about challenges because businesses go up and down, markets go up and down and no company is perfect.”

Honwad, who advocates for women’s rights, emphasized the value of aligning yourself with people with similar values in the tech ecosystem. “[Those people] can make your life better not just from an investment and money standpoint, but also a personal standpoint, because life happens,” she said.

Moore, who unexpectedly lost one of her co-founders at AMP Beauty, said that entrepreneurs “really have to learn how to adapt to [their] circumstances.”

“She was young, healthy, vibrant and we've been sorority sisters and friends over the past decade,” she said about her co-founder Phyllicia Phillips, who passed away in February. “So it was just one of those moments where you have to take a pause.”

Moore said this experience forced her to ask for help, which many founders hesitate to do. She encouraged the audience to try and share their issues out loud with their teams because there are always people who will offer help. When Moore shared her concerns with her investors, they jumped in to support her in ways she didn’t think was possible.

Kundra said that while it is important to have a support group and listen to mentors, it is very important for entrepreneurs to follow their own thinking and pick and choose what they want to implement within their strategy. “At the end of the day, you really have to own your own decisions,” she said.

Kundra also said that while it is easy to turn to your colleagues and competitors and do what they are doing, you shouldn’t always follow them because every business is different.

“When I was in the heat of it, I kind of became [a part of] this echo chamber and that was really challenging for us,” Kundra added, “but we were able to move beyond it and figure out what worked for us [as a company] and we're still on a journey. You're always going to be figuring it out, so just know you're not alone.”

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