Interview: How Pair is Building Healthy Relationships

Global Dating Insights had the pleasure of speaking with Richa Raval, Founder and CEO of Pair dating, about the platform’s philosophy and approach.

She explained how the platform encourages singles to start dating healthily from the beginning, and what we can expect from its official launch in Q4 2023.

Ahead of her participation in the upcoming Global Dating Insights conference in London on 14th September, here’s her discussion with Senior Reporter Sean Nolan:

• GDI: Can you tell us about Pair dating? How does it work and what makes it unique?

Richa: Pair dating is the app that helps build healthy, secure relationships from the start. It’s not just about matching, but it’s about teaching people skills to choose the right partner and skills to sustain healthy relationships with each other. We do this by first teaching people healthy relationships skills using bite- sized tools and activities created by relationship psychologists and then connecting them with other users.

To keep dating healthy as well, we have a unique relationship-oriented profile setup, we limit the number of active conversations at one time and push users to go on a date sooner rather than later. Once users are Paired for a while, they can move to the couples side of the platform where they can access resources on forming healthy relationship patterns early on.

Usually when people match on dating apps, they do so based on shallow aspects of profiles. In addition, users experience ghosting and other unhealthy behaviors from other users.Then they stumble into relationships and create unhealthy patterns, and maybe end up in couples therapy years later. Instead, if people learned healthy relationship skills BEFORE instead of AFTER, people would choose the right partners and have healthier and more fulfilling relationships.

Dating apps have always prioritized ‘matching’ and making profiles attractive, and relationship therapy platforms have been for matured couples that have already established relationship problems. Pair is finally bringing these two together because dating should be the beginning of healthy relationships.

• GDI: What is your definition of ‘healthy dating’ and why do you think it’s important in the current dating world today?

Richa: Healthy dating is the ability to date in a way that is respectful, authentic and honest, while being aware of your core needs, values, boundaries and relationship goals. In the current dating world, people are unaware of what their core needs are, what their values are and often dont know exactly what they want in a relationship.

They focus on shallow aspects of profiles and match with people that might be perfect on paper but do not align with their values or what they need emotionally. Also, because people have so many conversations at once, users lack the skills to be emotionally available or communicate in healthy ways. This gives rise to ghosting, breadcrumbing and other unhealthy behaviors.

If this continues this way, the world will move towards more disconnect, loneliness and decline in mental health and wellbeing. Now, people (especially Gen Z)  actually want something different, they want partners that are able to communicate well and are emotionally available. This creates a skill gap.

At Pair, we want people to become more self-aware and also learn skills to be secure dating partners. We do this by teaching them healthy communication skills, teaching them how to be emotionally available, how to develop a secure attachment and many other skills that are needed to date and maintain healthy relationships.

• GDI: What kind of personalised content can users expect to receive? Where is this content sourced from?

Richa: Users will receive content in the form of bite sized modules (think duolingo), on all topics needed to become self-aware and learn how to be in a healthy relationship. The modules will be in the form of either short videos, quizzes, text cards, questions or journal prompts. This will be personalized based on user responses on their profile. The content is created and reviewed by relationship psychologists based on their years of experience working with individuals and couples. They specialize in CBT, EFT, attachment styles, Gottman method and PACT therapy to mention a few.

• GDI: Where is Pair dating currently operating and who is the target community / demographic you’re looking to serve?

Richa: We will be launching in Q4 2023. We are targeting anyone that is done with shallow dating and is ready for a healthy relationship with partners that are also learning skills to be healthy/secure partners. Our main target audience will be people that are going to therapy, are actively working on their mental wellbeing, are looking to become more self-aware and want to improve their relationships. We expect our users will be between the ages of 25-45 that are looking for long-term relationships. We will first be launching in the UK and then expanding in the US.

• GDI: Finally, do you have any targets or plans for Pair dating looking ahead to the rest of 2023?

Richa: We are currently beta testing our app with select relationship psychologists. After this, we will be opening our beta test to our waitlist in August. Once this is complete we hope to launch our app in Q4 2023. We will also be launching our first in-person event in August 2023. Our in-person events will include an hour long healthy relationship skill workshop followed by speed dating using healthy dating prompts. We will be launching our podcast in September. 

You can find out more about Pair dating on its website here.