MEET THE DEVELOPER
She & Her
Robyn Exton is CEO of the world’s largest LGBTQ+ app. Read Her story.
HER: Lesbian LGBTQ Dating
Date & Meet Queer LGBT Friends
Her launched in 2013 to help lesbians find dates. Now CEO Robyn Exton has turned the app into one of the world’s largest platforms for queer women, with 4 million users in more than 50 countries. While dating is still a big part of the social network, Her has expanded its scope to help users make friends, find community, and unapologetically explore identity.
A year before she got her app off the ground, Exton was working in marketing in London. Fed up with the poorly designed and often untrustworthy dating sites targeted at lesbians, she decided to create something better. “Lesbians exist. It’s a box on forms. Why has no one made an app for us?” she says.
In her spare time, Exton started learning how to code, taking web development classes and attending networking events in London’s tech community. It didn’t take long to blow through $16,000 in savings—a modest portion of which she won in the EuroMillions lottery—as she built the app, so she took a mishmash of jobs to keep her project afloat.
Exton originally called her idea Dattch (short for “date catch”)—it was like Grindr for lesbians. But after she launched her app on the App Store and quit her job to work on Her full-time, she quickly learned that the model for gay men did not work for women.
I could be mopping the floors on Saturday, pitching investors on Tuesday. I do whatever needs to be done to keep this company going.
—Robyn Exton
“When you have a female-only user base, it’s completely different,” she says. “Loads of our users were looking for friendship much more than dating. They mostly just wanted to find other queer people to go to a bar with.”
Her big breakthrough came when she was accepted into Wayra UK, a London-based startup incubator, which led to initial seed funding.
Fast-forward to 2015. After an overhaul of the app, which included a name change to Her, and receiving $1 million in funding, Exton was accepted into Silicon Valley’s Y Combinator accelerator. As a result, she relocated her company to San Francisco.
Today, Exton and her team have learned a lot from the community they serve. What started out as an app for lesbians has evolved to support inclusiveness above all else.
Nothing makes that more apparent than when you create your profile in Her. Gender identity and sexuality are optional fields, and your choices are vast. The app supports more than 25 different gender expressions and lists over a dozen sexual preferences.
In the Feed, you’ll find all types of nearby events, from casual hangouts to gatherings for political activism. The new Communities section helps you connect with others around identity and what matters to you; join the conversation in Queer Womxn of Color, Trans Womxn, Mindfulness & Wellbeing, and more.
“It’s not just about me finding a girlfriend anymore,” Exton says. “It’s about making other people feel like they’re a part of something bigger.”