The dating app BAE, co-founded by Jordan Kunzika ’16 in 2015, has been acquired by the technology company if(we), the parent company of popular dating website Tagged.
Kunzika and Justin Gerrard Tu’16 both served important roles in the app’s creation — Kunzika was a co-founder and Gerrard was the chief marketing officer. The app, which is targeted at black users, was initially launched at Howard University and in its first month received 17,000 downloads. Since then, BAE has gained several hundred thousand users and has been ranked as one of the top 50 “Lifestyle” apps in the iOS App Store in 20 African and Caribbean countries around the world.
Kunzika wrote in an email that the experience of developing the app, building a community of users and eventually being acquired was an “amazing journey.”
Gerrard wrote in an email that his experience from BAE will add a lot of value to his new position at if(we).
“I think that the opportunity to leverage what we learned at BAE to grow our new parent company’s existing brands will position them for long-term success within the social consumer app space,” Gerrard wrote.
Jamie Coughlin, the director of entrepreneurship at the College, said that the Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network helped support the BAE dating app early on and that both Kunzika and Gerrard heavily used the DEN innovation center as a brainstorming place. The BAE team was a recipient of multiple awards, including the DEN Founder Grant. Through additional mentorship, the BAE team also won the grand prize at the 2015 Dartmouth Ventures conference, now known as the Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Forum. Since then, DEN has used both Kunzika and Gerrard as mentors and speakers for some of its events.
Throughout their time at the College, Kunzika and Gerrard met with many people and organizations within Dartmouth who helped the pair achieve success. Kunzika said in a phone conversation that computer science professor Lorie Loeb, who runs the DALI Lab through the computer science department, was instrumental in allowing him to structure his senior year so that he could work on BAE full time and still continue his studies. He said that because of her help, he was able to write a senior thesis and graduate with high honors. Kunzika also noted that she gave him the motivation and opportunity to pitch BAE, and that she always provided feedback that contributed to the development of his entrepreneurial mindset.
Gerrard, following the acquisition, was hired to work at if(we), where he currently leads marketing and growth. Kunzika has transitioned to work as a software engineer at Google on a team called Google Expeditions.
Kunzika said that he hopes the acquisition will benefit the black community by helping the app gain international exposurand directing attention to other issues the black community faces.
“I hope that my entrepreneurial story with BAE and its acquisition will inspire more people, especially underrepresented minorities,” he wrote in an email statement.
