Planet Theta’s Crew Flips the Script on Dating Apps
I had the pleasure of interviewing Chris Crew, the CEO and co-founder of Planet Theta. Chris lives in the Pacific Northwest and is an avid PC gamer. A former collegiate debater and coach, Chris has made a career out of creating new businesses. Some of his larger successes include starting three multimillion-dollar companies including a niche plastics manufacturer, a growing agricultural processor, and a thriving retail store. Chris strongly believes that a VR-based Metaverse will soon become a multibillion-dollar industry — and he has put his money where his mouth is. Chris has invested over $1 million of his own funds to create Planet Theta and get ahead of that transition.
Thank you so much for joining us!
What motivated you to launch your startup?
Planet Theta was first imagined during the height of the pandemic. Covid disrupted the social life of nearly everyone, something especially felt by single people trying to date. The results were not surprising — all of my friends began looking for a safe way to have personal interaction. Many of us attempted video calls and other options, but everything we tried fell short. Video calls were better than nothing, but they felt more like a phone call than hanging out together. And then one day I stumbled on the answer — using virtual reality, technology’s most immersive way to connect. This realization led to the birth of Planet Theta, the world’s first virtual reality dating app.
What is it that excites you about what you’re building?
Planet Theta is the safest, most convenient and effective way to date. Users go on dates within the app, creating a safe and convenient way to get to know people before sharing personal information and meeting in person.
We believe people are ready for a way to date that pushes personal interaction and chemistry back to the forefront of dating while still benefiting from the convenience that technology provides. We call it Microdating. Instead of focusing first on looking at profiles, on Planet Theta matchmaking is about testing chemistry, an essential part of every relationship. On Planet Theta, users look at each other’s profiles only after going on a short date together within the app to test their chemistry. This formula for dating is far more effective at matchmaking because users minimize the time they spend with people that they don’t click with.
Microdating is a significant breakthrough for users’ security and privacy. It dramatically reduces in-person dates that go bad by weeding most of them out first through short dates in VR. Similarly, instead of sharing social media or other information to set up first dates, users on Planet Theta only share personal information after going on dates they enjoyed. The result is that far fewer people have the access or means to stalk, harass, or assault users on Planet Theta than on traditional dating apps.
Planet Theta also offers a variety of public destinations to help people reclaim some of the experience that going out and meeting people can give while maintaining the convenience and security of doing it from home. The bars, cafes, and dance clubs on Planet Theta are a terrific place to go out with friends or meet new people — while skipping all of the bot profiles and social media collectors wasting your time on phone apps.
What has been your biggest challenge when growing your startup?
One of the biggest challenges of working in the technology industry is staying on the cutting edge. New technological developments regularly remake the marketplace which requires an ability to turn on a dime. One example was the massive shift of VR users from Steam to Meta (formerly Oculus) in the wake of the Quest 2 takeover of the VR market. When we began developing Planet Theta, around 40% of the market was on Meta and around 60% was on Steam. This led us to conclude that we should launch first on Steam and then on Meta. Since then those numbers have shifted dramatically. Today around 95% of the VR market is on Meta and only 5% is on Steam — this massive change led our team to pivot and refocus our efforts to launch on Meta first.
What are your future plans for your startup?
Planet Theta has already begun creating diverse metaverse partnerships to offer users a variety of high-quality experiences to choose from. We have partnered with allrites© to create the first movie theater in the metaverse. We are currently working on other partnerships to offer exciting dating opportunities like a comedy club show, a high-rollers experience at a casino, and a concert venue, among others.
Our next demo will be at the end of July, our final demo will be in September, and we are launching on Meta in November. If you are interested in joining a demo, please join our discord channel: https://discord.gg/GgwnUPsn2G
If you had to share, “words of wisdom,” with a Founder who’s about to start their own startup, what would they be?
Try to meet with everyone! Although time is valuable and limited as the CEO, meeting with people has given me valuable information and connections. I usually learn something in every meeting I attend. Although it may feel like a relentless stream of solicitations (it is), there is more to it than that. Many of the solicitations are coming from people that specialize in servicing your industry. A few will likely have a product or service to help your business succeed, and even those that do not, often help identify issues that need to be addressed in some fashion. On occasion, I feel like my time was completely wasted and that is frustrating but rare. More often I learn something new and create a new contact.
How can our readers follow you on social media?
We have nearly every social media out there. Our most active accounts are:
https://www.instagram.com/planettheta/
https://www.facebook.com/PlanetTheta
https://twitter.com/Planet_Theta
https://www.linkedin.com/company/planet-theta/
If I was interested in investing in Planet Theta, how would I contact you?
Investors can learn more about Planet Theta and set up a meeting on our investor website: https://www.investplanettheta.com
If you would prefer to contact me directly, send me an email:
This was very insightful. Thank you so much for joining us!
