The Power of Music (POM)
Vihan Patel (Founder)
UK
POM is the dating app for music lovers. We use the music you love to introduce you to others who feel the same, guaranteeing a shared baseline compatibility from which to build meaningful connections.
The longer you wait, the less likely you’ll start. Take the risk while you can.
Questions & Answers
Praveen
Tell us about yourself, education, and background about the start-up.
Vihan
My name is Vihan, I’m 22 years old and have just graduated from Cardiff University. I read Politics & International Relations at university. Like many of us, I’ve always been a huge music fan – it’s a big part of who I am – and when I first arrived at Cardiff, I noticed there was a real lack of events that catered to me. At least to the extent that I was used to back in London! I decided to do something about it, so I rented a club venue and started to host events for students – the kind of events that I wanted to go to. The events were a success and grew bigger, better, and further to other venues across the UK. I eventually had to stop to focus on my studies and having finished my degree my full focus is now on POM.
POM is a unique dating app that matches users based on their emotional responses to the music they love. The most important part of any successful relationship is emotional compatibility. At POM we believe that music allows for the truest representation of your emotional profile, so we use a shared love of the same music to help people forge meaningful connections.
Praveen
How and when did the “eureka moment” came to you? – When you came up with this idea?
Vihan
The initial “eureka moment” was after an event I had hosted in my second year at university. The event was for a different genre of music to my usual events and I noticed that because of this, the people that came to that event varied massively from the crowds I was used to – from the way they dressed, to the way the spoke and even what they drank. This really helped to bring into focus for me the idea that the music we listen to has an impact on who we are. I later realised that a few years previously I had experienced music’s potential to connect people first-hand. I had accidentally sent the wrong person a playlist I’d made, which led to me and this stranger communicating via swapping songs with each other which led to meeting up, which led to a relationship. All the pieces fell into place and I knew that I had to start what would become POM.
Praveen
How did you come up with the name?
Vihan
I set out to do my research about the connection between music and emotion, and the term popped up right away – it was the very first thing I saw. It really spoke to me and it just… worked. I loved the abbreviation too, so it all felt fated and now here we are.
Praveen
What is your WHY?
Vihan
Aside from the fact that throughout university I LOVED connecting people through music, I also met some of my best friends at random events that I went to. I was bored of the existing crop of dating apps. I found them to be too superficial and extremely… game-ified. Reducing dating to swipes and a game of hot-or-not feels so impersonal and inhuman. Other apps were also too invasive I felt like overall they just removed the magic of dating. I think with dating apps we’ve lost the organic nature of meeting someone. I’m trying to build an app that can still feel as exciting as meeting someone in a bar or a club.
Praveen
How many founders are in your startup? Can you shortly describe your role in the startup?
Vihan
We are an ever-growing team of 5: myself, my co-founder Vlad and our 3 amazing Tech leads. From the very beginning I learnt that a title in a start-up means basically nothing, everyone has to wear multiple hats. Technically, my title is ‘CEO’, but I work on the marketing, branding, tech, legal and everything in between.
Praveen
What is USP for your startup?
Vihan
We believe that we’ve honed in on a truly accurate way of defining people’s emotional character and we make connections based on that, not where they went on holiday or the right angle of photo. We don’t gamify dating, we don’t ask you to fill out your life story and we don’t believe in superficiality. We believe in matching you on emotion and that’s it.
Praveen
Do you see a global presence for your startup? Which key countries you plan to target?
Vihan
The beautiful thing about music is that transcends race, religion, language, and every other barrier you care to think of. Music is truly universal. I could play a song to 100 different people from 100 different countries and they’d all be able to feel it and take something away from it emotionally. With that in mind, POM is fundamentally built to be global. We’ll begin with London but will be looking to aggressively expand soon after, and want people around the world to be able to experience the Power of Music for themselves.
Praveen
What was your biggest fear, prior to starting the journey as a founder? How did you overcome this fear?
Vihan
The risk! Losing the sense of security is scary – I rejected a job offer to pursue this and that was a big thing for me. I was able to overcome that fear solely because of my belief that POM is something special, and I haven’t looked back since.
Praveen
Where do you see your startup in next 5 years?
Vihan
Hopefully a global player in shaping the way people not only approach dating apps but also think about them. I hope people realise that the superficial means of dating are a FAD and real, genuine connections are the ones that last.
Our aim is to partner with the largest festivals/events and have plans to take POM out of the purely digital space and into the real world. We don’t want everyone staying virtual, we want to drive people to meet through the app but experience events together.
Praveen
What will you call success for your startup?
Vihan
For us, success is knowing that we have helped people meet their perfect match.
Praveen
How do you see impact of Covid-19 on your business?
Vihan
Obviously it’s been less than ideal as we’ve had to adjust launch dates and timings. We’ve also had to push back our B2B model until we can attend events. However, I think know more than ever, people are wanting to connect with others however they can. If there’s one thing we have learned from Covid-19 it’s the value of human contact and emotional support.
Praveen
If you had to give ONE piece of advice to someone starting out on entrepreneurial journey, then what will it be?
Vihan
The longer you wait, the less likely you’ll start. Take the risk while you can !
