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Coffee Meets Bagel is an online dating app that has made a fortune for their billion introductions and matches to date. The dating app that targets the millennials claims that they are responsible for over 100,000 happy couples in the world. The company had the most memorable moments on TV after they appeared on Shark Tank.
Although they are not among the rejected pitch on Shark Tank, they failed to secure a deal. The sisters who is running the business ultimately decided to reject Mark Cuban's $30 million offer. Good thing that they rejected Cuban's offer since they went on be worth more than that after over seven years. At the moment, the company is valued at $150 million.
The Kang Sisters Come From Family Of Entrepreneurs
Arum Kang was the one who came up with the idea for Coffee Meets Bagel. She initially thought about it while she was doing her MBA at the prestigious Harvard Business School. She was among the handful students who got into the HBS MBA class of 2011 who went on to start their own business.
The idea prospered after Arum talked about it with her twin sister Dawoon and older sister Soo. The trio were born to be entrepreneurs, after all entrepreneurship runs in their blood since their parents started their own business in Korea.
Hailing from South Korea, the Kang sisters came from a family of entrepreneurs. Both of their parents started their own business with their father running his own scrap iron business while their mother went to manage several bars and restaurants.
The sisters emigrated to the US when they were only 12 years old with their older sister Soo. Their parents stayed in Korea to take care of their business, so a family friend looked after them growing up.
Dawoon has always wanted to start her own business, in order to learn more about the ins and outs of entrepreneurship, she went to study her MBA in business in Stanford while her twin went to Harvard.
Arum Kang Will To Solve The Dating Problem Of Women
Arum Kang created the idea behind the business Coffee Meets Bagel in 2011 and the following year. She came up with the idea after she noticed that dating and meeting people is extremely hard especially for women. The sisters were keen on making the app a success since they wanted to be of service to women who just wanted to date.
In order to finally launch the app, the sisters needed to quit their job. Dawoon quit her job at the JPMorgan, older sister Soo quit her job as graphic designer for the luxury brands like Sally Hansen and Marc Jacobs while Arum just graduated. They had a soft launch in April 2011 just in New York City, then in Boston and San Francisco.
The Kang sisters finally started offering Coffee Meets Bagel across the world in 2012 since they wanted to inspire the singles to feel good about going back into the dating game. Over the years, the sisters realized that men and women have different styles in terms of dating. Dawoon initially took on the role of Chief Operating Office, but later became the company's Chief Executive Officer four years after Coffee Meets Bagel's inception. Soo on the other hand took over as the Head of Design .
What sets their dating app apart from other dating app is that instead of showing the candidates unlimited number of matches, they curate the system to display just 6 matches for women everyday.
Appearing On Shark Tank To Raise Additional Capital
Kang sisters Dawoon, Arum and Soo went to pitch their business on Shark Tank in 2015. They were seeking for $500,000 investment in exchange for 4% equity on their business. The sisters came on strong to the show and were very pleasant during their presentation.
They focused their pitch entirely on the benefits of the dating app, leaving no room for background exposition. The entire pitch was used to hype their product and explain what makes them different noting on their core beliefs. No sob story about their personal hardship whatsoever which made their appearance on the show more pleasant.
Since the sisters were firm on their mission to help others rather than profiting on their business, Mark Cuban decided to challenge this and offered them $30 million in exchange for the company. Coffee Meets Bagel received the highest offer a shark gave on the show, but they turned him down.
None of the sharks ended up investing in the ir company and that's okay. Coffee Meets Bagels increased their popularity and eventually earned millions in investments. After leaving Shark Tank with no luck, the sisters secured over $23 million in five rounds of investments.
Today, the company has reported a total of 10 million users across the world. Coffee Meets Bagel sometimes make it to the top 10 most popular dating app on the app stores. They certainly had their fair share of competitors such as Tinder, Bumble and even the celebrity dating app called Raya.
Despite the competition, there's no doubt that the company has made it bigger than what Mark Cuban had initially offered them for their company.