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If your LinkedIn profile can help you find a job, then why not a date?

That’s the idea behind LinkedUp!, a new networking app for those who want to ensure their next match is gainfully employed before they meet for drinks.

The app, which for now is compatible only with iPhones and other iOS devices, is a cross between the professional networking website and Tinder, the popular dating app. Users filter potential mates by job industry, age, proximity and gender. Just like Tinder, two users who signal they like each other are encouraged to chat.

If LinkedUp! has a familiar user experience, its data source is novel. Many dating apps, like Tinder or Hinge, sync with Facebook to pull in a user’s photo and personal information, but this is the first to use source code from LinkedIn. (Users can add additional photos on the app to balance out corporate head shots.)

Max Fischer, the 28-year-old founder of the app and a former investment banker, said he believes the LinkedIn data “is going to result in much higher-quality matches.” Because a LinkedIn profile is essentially a digital résumé, “people get a really true sense of where someone’s from, what they do, and where they went to school, which are the main questions people ask in terms of dating,” he said in an interview.

The app has no affiliation with LinkedIn; developers often apply to use elements of the site’s database. A LinkedIn spokesman declined to comment.

Fischer declined to disclose how many downloads the app has logged since soft-launching in early March, but said that its user base has doubled in the past month. He is planning a hard launch in the near future, with “download parties” in the cities where LinkedUp! has gained  traction, such as New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Fischer, who previously worked for a private equity firm, said he is also in the market for venture-capital funding.

He said he had the idea for LinkedUp! about a year ago, when he noticed young professionals using LinkedIn for more than just networking. He enlisted a family friend with the technical know-how to get it off the ground.

Nodding tot he concerns of Hr departments everywhere, Fischer cautions that the app does not encourage office romance. Instead, he said, it is a chance to tap into a network of professionals with common backgrounds.

Of course, intentions may vary. In a recent survey, 84% of workers aged 18-29 said they’d be open to dating a coworker.

Courtesy of LinkedUp!


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