CITYAM - Mar 1 - UK Cannabis firm Jacana heads towards floatation after securing $20M in private investment. Serial entrepreneur Alexandra Chong, the company's co-founder, said "all options were on the table" in terms of funding, as Jacana seeks to expand its production facility in Jamaica to meet the demand for medicinal cannabis in the UK. After making her name with the women-only dating app Lulu, which was sold to Badoo in 2016, Chong said she was focusing on her "passion project" of creating the "champagne of cannabis".
21 posts categorized "Lulu"
Lulu Founder Is Considering IPO for Her Cannabis Company
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Review Of People Rating Apps
REVIEW-WEEKLY - June 20 - People love reviews. We're seeing the rise of a new breed of review apps: apps with the purpose of letting users review individual people.
- Peeple - The first "Yelp for humans" app. Users have privacy concerns. There are reviews about people without their consent.
- Stroovy - Stroovy requires the person being reviewed to have an active dating profile visible to the public. Stroovy requires users to submit a full review on someone before that user is allowed to search reviews of anyone else.
- Lulu - Once a platform for women to review men on dating sites, Lulu is now a retooled Tinder clone. This people-reviewing app was recently sold to Badoo
Stroovy's approach appears to be the most respectable. Only allowing reviews of people currently "putting themselves out there."
See full article at Review Weekly
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Lulu Is Dead
OPW - June 6 - Lulu allowed women to review guys and was acquired by Badoo in February this year (see Lulu news). It was then converted to just a regular dating app powered by Badoo, but look at onlulu.com. We noticed this countdown on Friday. When the time is up, nothing happens and the count down starts again. So this might be the end of Lulu. We can't find Lulu in the app store search either. Bye bye Lulu. The folks at Peeple and Stroovy will be pleased. (Full Disclosure: Stroovy is a former client of Courtland Brooks)
See all posts on Lulu
See all posts on Badoo
Post by Mark Brooks @ Courtland Brooks.
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Lulu Doesn't Let Women Rate Men Anymore
YAHOO FINANCE - Mar 29 - When Lulu started, it wasn't a vehicle for finding a date; it was a rating app. In February, the app sold to Badoo, the largest online-dating company in the world, for an undisclosed amount, and the rating system was swiftly dismantled. It now looks like any other Tinder imitation. Alexandra Chong, the former Lulu CEO, has relocated to London and become president of Badoo. Lulu will remain active for now, Badoo says, but Chong will be focusing on Badoo's separate mobile app. In other words, the Lulu acquisition looks more like an acqui-hire. Badoo hadn't made many acquisitions before it bought Lulu, which would not share how many users it has. Badoo has 300M users across 190 countries, and one of Chong's new tasks is to grow its app in the US.
by Daniel Roberts
See full article at Yahoo Finance
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Lulu Acquired By Badoo
TECH CRUNCH - Feb 9 - Lulu, the once controversial mobile app that let women anonymously review and rate men, has been acquired by Badoo. Lulu founder and CEO Alexandra Chong will move back to London from New York to join Badoo as President, where she'll be focusing on international expansion. Terms of the deal remain undisclosed. Lulu had raised $15M. The new Lulu will be powered by Badoo.
by Steve O'Hear
See full article at Tech Crunch
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See all posts on Badoo
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
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Dating App Lulu, As We Know It, Is Dead
ENGADGET - Jan 27 - Old Lulu was a platform based more on information than action. Female users went there to see if the guy they just met was a creep. Lulu is now one of Badoo's white label dating sites.
by Chris Velazco
See full article at Engadget
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Lulu Is Now A Dating App, Relaunches In Brazil
ZDNET - Aug 14 - Lulu, the controversial men review app, is relaunching in Brazil with new functionalities that includes access to men, who will be able to view their "scores" in the app, a chat function that will allow women to initiate conversations with men. When Lulu first launched in Brazil in 2013, the app faced legal issues from men who felt offended by comments made by former partners. The new version of the app will no longer require users to link their Facebook profiles to the tool. Anyone on the app can delete their profiles and reviews with an automatic self-removal function.
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Lulu Launched In UK
TELEGRAPH.CO.UK - June 19 - Lulu, the controversial dating app that lets women rate men, has launched in the UK, following success in the US (it had ~ 200K users after two months, and a 60% retention rate). It allows women to comment on and rate the men they know and have dated.
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Lulu App's Truth Bombs Lets Users Anonymously Ask About Sex
BUSTLE - Dec 3 - Lulu App’s Truth Bombs feature allows male and female users to anonymously ask, answer, and comment on intimate questions regarding sex and relationships. Men are allowed to post questions, but only the male poster is allowed to make comments on his thread. When a female creates a post, men are barred from chiming in. However, all male users can read all posts, even if they can’t participate in the conversation.
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How She Did It: Q&A With Alexandra Chong On Founding Lulu
FORBES - Nov 20 - Alexandra Chong is the Founder & CEO of Lulu, the provocative female app that allows users to rate men.
Q: What inspired you?
A: I graduated with a law degree from LSE, and I went to work in the legal department of a music licensing start-up. I quickly realized I wanted to start my own business. I went to a brunch with a group of girls after Valentine’s Day. It was a table of just women sharing stories about guys. I concluded that women needed their own network for sharing with other women.
Q: What were some of the tactics you used to get Lulu off the ground fast?
A: We went directly to our customers. College sororities and fraternities seemed like a great fit, so we ran a beta at two colleges in Fl. Within just a few weeks, we had 40% of girls and 60% guys on a campus on Lulu!
Q: What were some of the challenges you faced?
A: I don’t have a technical background, so I needed a very strong technical lead. Our CTO, Hassan Chahrour, was one of my first hires.
Q: What do you see as the future of dating and the emergence of accompanying tools, in particular?
A: Online dating is now the norm. We hear from users that dating without a reference is a scary thing. Lulu provides a critical information layer for the dating industry.
Q: What successes have you achieved so far at Lulu?
A: We’ve reached millions of girls in the US, including one in four US college girls. We hit #1 in the App Store in Brazil just one week after launch.
Q: Do you have any advice for other professionals aspiring to start their own business?
A: It all starts with the team. Find people that are smarter than you who you believe in and want to work with.
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Lulu Hopes To Cash In By Charging Brands To Advertise
NEW YORK BUSINESS JOURNAL - June 14 - Alexandra Chong, founder of Lulu, wanted a place where women could share feedback about men. So she and Alison Schwartz started Lulu, a rating app that has now millions of users. Rating men is only the launching pad. It intends to move into beauty, health, fitness and personal finance. Lulu raised $3.5M. As Lulu continues to build its community, it becomes a place for brands to pay for access, promotion and advertising.”
by Gary M. Stern
See full article at New York Business Journal
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Lulu Now Allows Men To See Their Ratings
BUZZFEED - May 17 - Boyfriend-rating app, Lulu, used to be for women only. It allowed them to rate their male Facebook friends. The latest update to the app will now allow men to see an overview of their rating, the number of women who have rated him, and a summary of the hashtags used to describe him.
by Katie Notopoulos & Katie Heaney
See full article at BuzzFeed
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The Lulu App Allows Men To Opt-In
THE DAILY BEAST - Mar 5 - Lulu, the mobile dating app for women, has changed its system to allow men to opt-in. Lulu’s official statement is “We’ve decided to be the better woman and only have guys on Lulu who are open to feedback.”
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Lulu: Dating Intelligence Or Unacceptable Surveillance?
THE PROVINCE - Feb 20 - Opinions are divided on Lulu, a controversial girls-only app that lets women anonymously dish on dates and other men among their Facebook friends. While men can’t sign onto Lulu, the company added Lulu Dude, where men can attach hashtags and photos and get relationship advice from girls on the app. Lulu has raised $5M and plans to make money by moving on from rating men to rating other items of interest to women.
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Brazilian Man Sues Lulu Over Negative Reviews
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS - Dec 6 - An insulted 28-year-old man in Brazil is suing the makers of Lulu, an app that allows women to anonymously rate and review guys. Mr. Scolari argued that the app does not comply with the country's Internet privacy laws. He is suing the company behind Lulu for $11,580.
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Dating Apps Like Lulu Might Prevent Rape
FORBES - Nov 26 - Lulu is a service that lets women anonymously review men. The men on the site haven’t opted in. Lulu has largely been negatively received by media because of privacy issues. Some women uses Lulu not necessarily to get nitty gritty info from the reviews, but to feel safer about the men they are interested in dating.
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Lulu: Controversial App For Rating Men
LA TIMES - July 14 - Lulu lets women rate their male friends, lovers and ex-boyfriends. When women download Lulu, it syncs with their Facebook accounts to verify that they’re female. Men are blocked. Once in the app, women can read anonymous reviews posted by other Lulu users and add your own ratings and create a profile for a male. The percentage of real and independently written reviews is unknown. Males can tell their sides or remove their profiles from Lulu through a separate app called LuluDude. Lulu founder Alexandra Chong originally raised $1M in 2011, and secured an additional $2.5M in seed financing in 2012.
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Lulu App Lets Women Rate Former Boyfriends
MASHABLE - June 15 - Lulu is a controversial social platform that lets ladies post reviews and recommendations about past dates. It is for women only. Men are denied access, deeming it a safe zone for females to rate guys on a variety of topics, from humor and ambition to first kiss and sex.
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Lulu: App For Trashing Your Ex
RED EYE CHICAGO - May 15 - According to the Lulu website, the app is "the smart girls' app," and when a guy tries to log in, a message pops up on the screen saying, "Dude, you're a dude!" Lulu uses men's Facebook pages to create a profile and invites users to compile info on everything about the guy. Men reviewed have little access to reply due to being locked out of the app, even though there is a limited accompanying app that lets them edit their basic profile. It's a paradise for anyone who enjoys trashing former boyfriends, especially since reviews are anonymous and there's no accountability.
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Women-only App Which Objectifies Men
TELEGRAPH.CO.UK - Apr 22 - Alison Schwartz and Alexandra Chong, who are long-time friends, created Lulu so women could read and write private reviews of men they are interested in dating. The free app is designed exclusively for women so they can anonymously research any man that they are interested in. Lulu isn't a place to trash-talk however. Since mid-January 2013, 80M profiles have been viewed on Lulu and 12M searches conducted. The business, which employs 14 people, has so far raised $3.5M.
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