My First Product with Robyn Exton, founder of HER

"My First..." is a new monthly series written by Jen Wolf, managing partner at Initialized Capital. The initial key decisions at an early-stage startup can make or break your company's chances of success and survival. In this monthly series, Jen will speak with various founders within the Initialized portfolio about their "first" experiences in hiring, product features, customers, design ideas, marketing campaigns, and more.

This month, Jen sits down with Robyn Exton, founder of HER, a sapphic dating and community app.

I was excited to interview HER founder Robyn Exton this month because we share a similar background working at global brand consultancies before transitioning to startup and VC life.

Current version of the HER app

I first met Robyn during a critical phase in 2017 when she was managing a significant rebrand for her social dating app. I advised her on hiring their first brand agency and product designer. Through the process, I was struck by her early dedication to fostering an authentic community despite going through several brand evolutions.

Originally, the company was named Dattch, but feedback from users revealed that the name wasn't working well. It was particularly confusing for users in the US, where it was difficult to pronounce. "They just couldn't say the word, and it didn't mean as much to our community," said Robyn.

After some testing and additional user feedback, she settled on 'HER' as the new name. "We wanted a name that better represented our space. We've always included our users as part of the journey."

Here's a condensed and edited version of the full conversation:

Jen: Let's begin with a brief explanation of HER in your own words.

Robyn: HER is a sapphic dating and community app. We help queer women, nonbinary and trans people find their person. We try to focus on the unique experiences sapphics have while dating to build the best product we can for them. This means next-level queer expression and a way to build connection outside of swiping and chatting—through IRL event discovery and community connections.

Jen: How did you adapt your past experience with branding into the process for thinking about a first product/early-stage company product process?

Robyn: The early days were exclusively from this perspective—I just didn't know any other way! I thought the value we could create for users was just by having a relevant brand. Then I learned that the experience had to be different because the goals were different. But even beyond the product experience, all my growth was through more brand-driven tactics. I would be in pubs, bars, and clubs every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday with a bottle of tequila and sambuca giving out shots if people would download the app.

Jen. What were your initial goals for the HER app?

Robyn: I truly thought I would get 1 million users in 1 year 🙈

Screenshot of the very first design of the HER app.

Jen: What were the features of the first version of the app? How did you decide what to include?

Robyn: It was a total rip of Grindr, to be honest, but the brand was cooler. After I saw it wasn't working, our first genuinely built product was almost like a Pinterest of dating. You would create this Pinterest board on profiles of what you liked, rather than just who you were.

Jen: You learned to code to build HER. How did this help you think through and build your first product?

Robyn: Honestly, the most valuable thing was knowing what I was asking people to do when I was looking for freelancers or asking friends to help. After that, I think I would tinker with the website constantly and then used it mostly in editing emails.

V2 of the HER app design

Jen: What were some of the key design or technology challenges from the first version of the app?

Robyn: The main issue was that the product value was completely missing for our users and community. Technically, I think it did the job. It was also a pretty bad experience because there was no one on there, and the first 20 profiles were my friends (who weren't actively using it). Someone had told me the first 10k users were a write-off, so I kind of adjusted for that and set about getting 10,001.

First update to the HER app

Jen: What has been the biggest evolution of the product from V1 to now?

Robyn: Sometimes I think we go back around in circles. It's been around for a long time. Sometimes I think, "Oh my God, I think this was my very original thesis coming back around again." Truly, from where I first started, I didn't understand the concept of product design and how our branding comes from the position of having a belief and delivering that through everything you do. And I think designing products comes from a belief of watching user behavior, seeing what will provide the most value, and building for that. There's a lot of belief in reading between the tea leaves of where the value sits. But I just didn't know that. I thought it was designing a cool brand that means something to people and they will come to it. I think a lot of tech companies undervalue that because I do think there's a lot of power that comes with that. People want to believe in something and stand by something, and someone that speaks to that holds more credibility in their mind. But if the function and the value aren't there, it doesn't have any worth.

Jen. Did you user test or speak to users prior to launching the first version of the app? Were there any surprises or key insights you still refer to today?

Robyn: A tonne. I had read that I needed to do this, so I went to a lot of places to meet people outside of my direct circles. I went to roller derby events, met people on Gumtree (a Craigslist of the UK), and sat in a sex toy shop. I'd ask people the same questions. I think the approach and theory were good; I just was asking the wrong questions (was really just validating my idea rather than truly exploring the problem).

Specific examples of direct questions I asked:

How do you meet people now?
Do you use online dating?
Would you use a lesbian dating website?
Would you use a lesbian dating website on your phone?

Jen: Did the product go through any major changes, or has it largely stayed the same?

Robyn: Adding in community was a really big change and a big part of what we were doing and community connections. And then there have been other brand updates since then, which have really been how our audience has evolved and changed. When I first started, we were for anyone who identified as a woman and non-binary people. Now, the way people label their gender and sexuality is so much broader so we updated HER.

The current version still speaks to the sapphic root that our community has, but there was a brand evolution that was more inclusive and acknowledging the fluidity that exists within our users.

Jen: Were there any key lessons you learned when you switched from Dattch to HER? What was the reaction from your users?

Robyn: We did a user survey, and the results showed that users didn't mind the name change, but we knew for growth that the name "Dattch" wasn't landing well. People in America thought it was "Dutch" and they just couldn't say the word, and it didn't mean as much to our community. We wanted a name that better represented our space. We've always included our users as part of the journey, so we communicated the change beforehand to make them feel involved. My principle has always been that as long as there's no major backlash, we've done a good job. Managing the team's expectations was crucial because so much work goes into it, and it's deflating to receive negative feedback. You just weather the storm and hope for smooth sailing.

Jen: I always feel like that means that users really care about the brand and the product a lot, even when they have strong feedback because they just feel so connected to it.

Robyn: I remember when we did one of the HER rebrands, literally five days before we published it, these users sent us a picture of their matching tattoos of our logo. They were a couple and they had just tattooed the logo on and I was like, "Oh my God, in five days we're about to roll out this different one." I felt so bad.

Jen: Oh dear. Well, it's retro now at least. What's something you have learned since the first launch that you wished you knew back then?

Robyn: You're going to help over 30,000 people get married stick with it.