After “40 or 50 dates,” George Taylor III was in search of a better way. 

Like many single 20-somethings, he had downloaded a dating app. Or four.

“I had a pretty good understanding of the market,” he said, laughing.

Now, as founder and CEO of Likeli (pronounced “likely”), he’s officially become an expert in what those in the biz call “relationship discovery.”

Since August, Taylor has assembled a team that includes an eHarmony cofounder to launch a mobile app he said will “connect people with what they’re looking for,” whether that’s a date, a soul mate or just a friend.

And all that will come in an app Taylor thinks users will find more insightful than hookup-friendly Tinder and simpler to use than questionnaire-heavy eHarmony.  

Likeli uses social media histories and simple actions within the app to create a psychometric profile of its users. Does she post a lot of selfies? How precise is his grammar? Does she research potential dates before reaching out? Does he say yes to everyone? 

“It’s all about social connections,” Taylor said.

Though Taylor, 26, started out hoping to find a way to make deeper connections easier to find, early research showed him that many people his age (the prime users of mobile dating apps) wouldn’t go near a product promising “love” or anything “meaningful.”

“It scares the heck out of them,” he said.

So yes, Likeli will be a dating app, but it also could be used to show someone prepping for vacation the places full of other people with her interests. Or someone moving to a new city the best places to find friends. A live “hot spot” feature uses a map display to show where users can find people they’ll like.

Likeli, which expects to sign on about a thousand local users during an “alpha launch” in late May, hopes to have its national launch near the end of 2016. The plan is to have 3 million app users 12 months later.

That should give Likeli the saturation it needs to start monetizing the data it collects.

Entrepreneurship runs in the Taylor family. Older brother Kurt founded Next Glass, which earned him the title of Coastal Entrepreneur of the Year at the 2014 Coastal Entrepreneur Awards. Kurt and George’s father, also named George, is chairman of both sons’ companies.

George Taylor III said he’s learned from his father and older brother, and he’s thankful he got to watch his brother launch Next Glass before starting Likeli.

“I got to learn from all of his mistakes ... and successes,” he said.

Some of the things he’s learned? Only hire proven people. Don’t be scared to raise money. Reach out to everyone. 

Following that advice helped him land eHarmony cofounder J. Galen Buckwalter as Likeli’s chief science officer. And it’s why he’s confident millions of people will sign up for Likeli.

Taylor just won’t need to be one of them. He’s in a relationship now, he said. No app required.


For more info about the Coastal Entrepreneur Awards, click here.