Meet Ravi Mittal, the Maverick Behind QuackQuack’s Success Story in the Competitive World of Online Dating
QuackQuack is more than just an online dating app; it’s a phenomenon that’s transformed the way young India finds love. Behind this change is Ravi Mittal, a college dropout turned CEO, who’s used his sharp growth-hacking acumen to cultivate a platform where 30 million users find connections. Starting from his family’s manufacturing business to leading one of India’s largest dating apps, Ravi’s journey is nothing short of extraordinary.
Foundational Journey: Starting QuackQuack from a rented 2BHK flat to reaching 30 million users, what were the pivotal moments and key strategies that fueled this incredible growth?
Being a bootstrapped startup, we did two things:
i). Focused on what customer needs
ii). Gradual improvement by growth hacking
Which took our journey from 0 to 30 Million userbase. We remain bootstrapped and yet among the fastest growing dating apps with 25,000 app downloads every day with this simple philosophy.
Competing in a Global Arena: As a homegrown Indian brand, how has QuackQuack positioned itself against international dating apps? What do you believe is QuackQuack’s unique selling proposition that resonates with the Indian audience?
India is a vast country with users from metros and even smaller cities and towns. While most global apps focus on radius based matching, we let our users match with anyone from their city, to even match with anyone in India. This has opened plethora of opportunities for single Indians to mingle online and make friends from across the country. Also, most Indians have had less interaction with the person from opposite gender IRL due to societal issues. We enable this interaction online and this was a welcome move, which was appreciated by our audience.
Leadership and Growth: With no formal technical qualification, your journey to leading a successful tech company is inspiring. Can you share your approach to growth hacking and how it has evolved over the years?
Our growth hacking journey stared with a simple AB test where we played with the colors of the Submit or Call to Action (CTA) button. A simple green vs orange test, just like Amazon did years ago, showed some interesting results. This made us believe that we can and should test minor to major changes within the app so we can acquire more users at lower costs, increase engagement for our users and in turn make QuackQuack the app, which people would find easy to use and find a date.
Over the years, we do multiple AB tests or experiment with growth hacks on a day-to-day basis which helps us improve gradually. While I may also not have any formal tech education, I believe having an overview or broad knowledge of concepts is enough to work with an experienced team who can deliver results for you.
Impact on Tier-2 and Tier-3 Cities: QuackQuack has a significant presence in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities. How do you tailor your app’s features and marketing strategies to meet the needs and preferences of users in these regions?
Among the first things we did is advertise in vernacular, including influencer outreach in regional languages. This helped us reach to a wider audience who doesn’t know Hindi or English. We also try to keep our marketing simple and to the point. If we try and go overboard with our ads, sometimes people don’t understand or relate. So we have decided to keep our approach grounded and simple.
Infact, we also ensure the language of communication with our users is simple and easy to understand, so it’s widely understood by users across cities from North to South.
Among the needs, as mentioned above, we saw a lot many users who never interacted with the opposite gender and an online medium like ours was the perfect place for both genders to find common place to mingle and interact. Today, we have users for example from Chennai, who are friends with someone from Punjab on the app. It’s interesting when we see these connections happen.
Future Aspirations: What are QuackQuack’s short-term and long-term plans? How do you envision the app’s role in shaping India’s online dating culture in the coming years?
We recently launched 1:1 matchmaking services in the dating space, probably among the first in India. We want to tailor make our solutions for our users so they can date better. We want to iterate and focus more on this area so we can personalize and educate our users better on a better dating experience.
Among our mid-term plans, we are planning to launch micro-searches so you can find people at the airport or concerts, or maybe within your office zone! We honestly, don’t have long term goals, which will keep evolving with changes in technology and age wise approach.
We are also seeing Gen-Z now has a major chunk of our userbase, so these users will define the dating culture for the next 3-5 years and we wish to understand and cater to this new audience.
Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs: Based on your journey, what advice would you give to budding entrepreneurs who are looking to start their ventures in the digital space?
Get a good UI and UX designer as most B2C apps need to leave that positive impact. Keep your product simple and solve the user’s problem. Do not focus on competition. Focus on your health.
From bootstrapped beginnings to becoming a cornerstone of the Indian online dating industry, QuackQuack under Ravi Mittal’s stewardship has charted a course of incessant growth. His vision extends beyond mere matchmaking; it’s about nurturing a culture of meaningful relationships across the nation. As Ravi leads QuackQuack into the future, his commitment to innovation promises to keep the app at the forefront of love and technology.
