I'm With Her

Self-described “non-tech person” turned app developer Robyn Exton is making it easier for LGBTQI women to connect amid what she says is “the next sexual revolution”, redefining mobile dating in the process

- Genevra Leek

Robyn Exton was 26 and working at a London based branding agency when the idea struck to create an app. One of her clients had a dating business. Grindr was out in the market but Tinder hadn’t yet reached the UK. “It was great for gay guys, and straight products were starting to think about how they play in that space,” she says. “At the same time, I was using this bad lesbian dating site that was really an uncomfortable experience... When I was then looking at all the great stuff that was out there and available for gay men and for straight people, I realised it was absurd that no-one had truly looked at what women want. Meanwhile, I was going to these cool queer East London [clubs] and thinking, ‘Why don’t the dating apps look more like this?’” So Exton decided to do something about it.

Moving in with her dad, she took on an extra job, sold her possessions and managed to pull together around $16,000. A night course in coding enabled her to understand more about the world she was entering and, with support from the London tech community, she submitted an app to Apple’s App Store. “I think it took a good chunk of blind naivety and ignorance. Not knowing what I was going into had a really positive impact on doing it because I had no idea how hard it was going to be.”

Slowly building a team around her, Exton was basically learning on the job for the first few years. “We had to figure out a lot of stuff– we saw a lot of things that did work, lots of things that didn’t, and eventually it led to us building a new app just over two years ago.”