Dating Apps Are Designed to Keep You Single | Celeste Amadon, Known

Celeste Amadon left Stanford, cancelled her job offers, and raised her seed round in four days before Known had a single paying user. Her thesis: dating apps aren't broken by accident. They're engineered to keep you swiping, paying, and single.We talk about the loneliness epidemic and why it's already your problem too, how Known uses voice inference to understand personality beyond what you say, the business model flipping dating on its head, and what it took to raise from Forerunner as a 21-year-old first-time founder.For: founders building consumer products, anyone exhausted by dating apps, operators thinking about AI and matching problems, people considering leaving school to build.CHAPTERS0:00 - Intro & Cold Open1:13 - Meet Celeste4:33 - Dating Is a Political Problem6:50 - Seed Round in 4 Days8:05 - Pitching Forerunner at 2111:34 - Why Apps Keep You Single16:36 - Leaving Stanford22:13 - The Marina Green MomentFOLLOW UShttps://www.instagram.com/thea.yapshttps://www.tiktok.com/@foundersinmotionhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/theango/ABOUT FOUNDERS IN MOTIONFounders In Motion brings you honest, tactical conversations with early-stage founders building companies from the ground up. Hosted by Thea Ngo, the show goes beyond the headlines to reveal the real decisions, trade-offs, and mechanics behind building startups. Past guests include founders from YC-backed companies, edtech leaders, SaaS operators, and global entrepreneurs.Subscribe for the insider playbook on building companies, growth tactics, and founder stories.