Innovatively helping couples keep their spark, with Ali Maggioncalda

It’s one thing to find your ideal partner and fall in love. It’s quite another to stay in love and maintain a healthy and fulfilling relationship. With her background studying and teaching human behavioural biology at Stanford, Ali Maggioncalda has always been fascinated by the impact that communication – or the lack of – has on couples.

She has been on a mission to provide a way for couples to really know each other, and to keep their relationship burning bright. And so the Lovewick app was born, its apt name representing how the wick of a candle facilitates the flame.

The app goes beyond the match, helping couples to nurture their relationship using fun and evidence-based tech including a question card game, community-generated date ideas, research-based tips and more. The Lovewick app is available on iOS and Android - try it with your partner today!

I really enjoyed learning from Ali how the app encourages couples to meaningfully connect offline through new conversations and experiences, helping them to cultivate a continued understanding and appreciation of each other.

Overview:

In our conversation, Ali

• Explains what Lovewick is all about, and how the concept was born.
• Describes the typical user of the app and the huge impact TikTok had on exposure and audience growth.
• Talks about the app’s business model, and difficult decisions that had to be made around monetisation.
• Opens up about the meaning behind the name, and her background before starting Lovewick.
• Discusses the irony of tech being the solution for improving ‘real life’ interaction.
• Delves into the transition from working for others to going it alone.
• Focuses on the issues that come with managing funding when you’re starting out, including getting backing.
• Reflects on decisions made during the business’s first two years, around hiring people and doing market research.
• Expands on TikTok’s impact, and how the dynamics have shifted to Instagram.
• Shares aspirations for Lovewick’s future over the next five years.
• Shares her learnings in business so far, stressing that no matter how big your team grows you should never personally stop talking to your product users.