Working at Thursday, the dating app live only one day a week
Guess which day?!
Why You Should Care
Thursday is disrupting the dating app sector.
To avoid boring over-chatting on apps, it is only live one day a week - I think you can guess which day.
But what does this mean for its team's work? UNLEASH finds out.
Online dating was born just before the millennium with the creation on Match.com in 1995. Fast forward, two decades and the dating landscape is dominated by dating apps.
These range from broad, all-encompassing apps like Tinder, Bumble and Hinge to nicher platforms aimed at helping particular groups find their people – examples include Growlr, Feeld and Her. Growlr is an app aimed at gay men who like ‘bears’, Feeld is a kink app and Her is primarily for lesbians.
However, one innovative dating app that has disrupted the sector is Thursday. You’ve guessed it – it is only active on Thursdays, and is currently only available in New York and London.
Founded in 2018, the idea behind Thursday is to avoid dating app fatigue from the endless online messaging that can happen on other apps – and instead push people to go on dates the same day they match. To make this safe (and avoid catfishing), Thursday has a robust verification process all users have to go through.
The company also organizes singles-only events on Thursdays (of course) in trendy locations around London and New York, as well arranges publicity stunts, sometimes in collaboration with other brands.
Recent examples include teaming up with Guinness on St Patrick’s Day – which was on a Thursday this year – as well as parading a camel around the city of London on a Wednesday (as a play on the term ‘hump day’) with a banner inviting the public to look forward to Thursdays instead.
Credit: Thursday.
But, what is it like to work for an app that technically only operates one day a week? How does it affects employees’ workflows?
UNLEASH caught up with Harry Savage, events and community lead at Thursday, to find out the details!
From WeWork to Thursday
Savage was working at WeWork in the city of London while he was figuring out he wanted to do (career-wise) in the long-term. “Thursday was a member in my building, and I got quite close to them”, explains Savage. Then they approached him with a job offer in November 2021, and after some careful consideration, Savage took the role.
Harry Savage, events and community lead, Thursday.
Savage is clear that “the best thing about Thursday is the team”. The dating app has nine full time employees – plus design contractors and some paid interns working on Thursday’s fun social channels and organizing the events.
“We all support one another so much” – and the co-founders Matthew McNeill Love (yes, someone with the surname Love created a dating app) and George Rawlings are “almost like friends”.
“They respect us so much, and we respect them. They listen to our viewpoints, and sometimes they trust us more with their company than they trust themselves”.
Whenever CEO Rawlings and COO McNeill Love are talking to investors, they always say “Thursday’s nothing without the team”, which is incredibly motivating for Savage and his colleagues.
“I enjoy getting up and going to the office in the morning, which I haven’t had before [in previous roles]”, Savage tells UNLEASH.
Thursday’s recruitment strategy revolves around “personality and creativity”. There is no need to have a “degree in marketing to help our marketing team”; in fact Thursday is forging its own path with how it does marketing and social media. The company isn’t afraid to take risks – the idea is that Thursday is more than a brand, it has its own personality and voice.
“We don’t follow the industry. We’re all about making mistakes and learning as we go along”, notes Savage.
Is Thursday the busiest day?
Although Thursday exists in New York as well as London, its entire time is London-based.
And they love going to the office, particularly the four in the marketing and events side of the business; Savage explains this helps them to create creative and collaborative with their social and marketing strategies. But they all work from home on Friday.
In terms of workflow, Savage notes “Thursday isn’t our busiest day” – Monday, Tuesdays and Wednesdays are because of the planning of the events, and also updates to the app. Savage explains that the development team are constantly innovating and improving the app’s algorithm; they often stay up late on Wednesdays to ensure the go-live of the app at midnight goes smoothly.
For Savage, and the rest of the creative team, the first half of the week involves organizing the events – sometimes they have as many as 13 going on one Thursday night. Then when Thursday actually comes, it is just watching the magic happen – “the biggest job for me is people asking if there are any more tickets for the events”.
“It’s quite a chill day, and sometimes well have a drink come four o’clock and celebrate”. “Then come Friday, you’re looking at the next week”, adds Savage.
The future of Thursday
Currently, because Thursday is such a small team, it doesn’t have a dedicated HR function; instead the two co-founders – Rawlings and McNeill Love – take on the role, with some help from HR tech platform CharlieHR.
“We will go to the co-founders for anything HR-related” – such as issues around wellbeing, or questions about contracts or pay. But as the team continues to grow – and it is currently hiring at scale in all areas of the business – it will move HR away from Rawlings and McNeill Love.
While CharlieHR helps Thursday with its benefits offerings, Savage explains that currently employees are in a share pool and so have a financial stake in Thursday and its success.
“The company is skyrocketing [at the moment]” and Savage is excited for what the future holds for Thursday, especially if it goes public, and what that’ll mean for the early employees.
In terms of the product, Savage shares that the app is going through a redesign and will look very differently in the near future. In addition, Thursday will soon be available in other cities beyond London and New York, particularly across Europe.
In addition, the long-term plan for Thursday is to move away from being a dating app and towards “a social singles club”. “The after-party, which we call our events, was originally a feature of the app, but it is now becoming the main thing,“ explains Savage. Venues, especially in New York, are now approaching Savage and Thursday to host the events.
This is because what the company has realized over the past four years is that it is the events that really makes Thursday stand out. “Post-pandemic, people are really for people are over dating apps. We are not making people meet online, we are making people meet in real life,” notes Savage.
Stay tuned to see if Thursday is a match made in heaven for singles in the US, UK and rest of Europe.
