REAL BUSINESS - Nov 22 - The Inner Circle launched in the UK in 2013, had €4.9M in revenue in 2017 and employs 12 people. The crux of Vermeulen's business idea came from personal experience, Vermeulen was looking for love himself. Living in London in 2012, he was trying all the different apps the internet had to offer. But they were high on user traffic, but low on quality user experience. "The bad dates were a catalyst for me. With The Inner Circle, I wanted the focus to be on good quality people meeting on a good quality platform." The website took traction in Amsterdam first, and then London. "But the game changer came a year later when launching the app itself," says Vermeulen. "Tinder became a little like MacDonald's. It's addictive and you want more, but as soon as you consume it, you feel sick." "We achieved a €8k turnover during our first month. By our second, it was €23k." There was huge pressure for Vermeulen to manage this growth effectively. With every launch in every city you make a lot of mistakes, and initially, we were launching across many cities at once, so we made a lot of mistakes. "We took a step back and took it city by city," says Vermeulen. As we stand, in late 2018, the demand for what The Inner Circle offers daters shows no signs of slowing. There are ~1.2M people on the waiting list. But what Vermeulen is most proud of is the wall of baby photos that are sent by couples who met on his app.
by Annie May Noonan
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Summarized by the IDEA team
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