Tinder for Founders: This AI Startup Lets Entrepreneurs Network by Swiping

Networking can be exhausting and frustrating. Professionals spend hours attending conferences, sending LinkedIn connection requests, exchanging business cards, and cold-messaging strangers, hoping one conversation might lead to an opportunity. 

For Kunal Khanna, Founder of Gurugram-based AI-powered networking platform Match It Up and the founder of B2B production company White Frog Films, that frustration became impossible to ignore.

“Networking has now started becoming a game of elites. It requires a lot of time, energy, and money. You spend hours meeting people without knowing whether you’re actually meeting the right ones,” Khanna tells AIM.

He believes networking shouldn’t depend on luck, algorithms, or expensive conferences. Instead, artificial intelligence can first understand networking intent and purpose before zeroing in on who they should meet.

That’s the idea behind Match It Up, an AI-powered networking platform that connects professionals based on intent instead of popularity.

Cupid for Business

Ironically, the inspiration didn’t come from LinkedIn. It came from dating apps, and the concept of swiping left and right.

Instead of reinventing user behaviour, Khanna wanted to apply that familiar experience to business networking.

“So we thought, why not build something that looks and behaves like a dating app but is actually an intent-based networking platform?” he recalls.

The concept is simple. After joining, the user has to describe what they need or how they can help other professionals. Instead of relying on mutual connections or follower counts, the platform’s AI tries to match people based on their shared purpose.

“If I had to summarise Match It Up in two words, they would be ‘intent’ and ‘purpose’,” he notes.

Moving Beyond LinkedIn

Khanna is quick to clarify that Match It Up is not trying to replace LinkedIn.

“LinkedIn is an amazing directory of people built over two decades. But LinkedIn helps you discover people. We help you meet the right people,” he says.

According to him, most existing platforms reward visibility. Users spend time trying to increase followers, improve engagement, and beat recommendation algorithms. 

Founded in January this year and bootstrapped with personal savings, Match It Up takes a different approach. Instead of asking users to become more visible, it asks a simpler question: What are you trying to achieve?

Whether someone is looking for an investor, co-founder, designer, client, or mentor, the platform aims to identify people who can genuinely help rather than recommending whoever appears most popular.

“Business today doesn’t only happen in boardrooms. It happens over coffee, during sports, painting sessions and casual conversations. But regardless of where people meet, the purpose should be clear,” he notes.

Teaching AI to Understand Intent

At the centre of the platform is Network Bot, Match It Up’s proprietary AI engine. Unlike traditional recommendation systems that rely mainly on keyword matching, Network Bot combines multiple AI models to understand context, communication style, and professional credibility.

“It is much more than keyword matching. One layer analyses conversations happening inside the platform’s networking communities, called Brew Circles, to understand user intent,” Khanna explains.

Another uses Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) to remember previous interactions and communication preferences.

“If someone usually replies instantly and another person rarely responds, AI understands those communication patterns,” he says.

The platform also includes a Web Verified Engine. Instead of verifying identity only through government documents, the AI analyses publicly available professional information, including company websites, published articles, and business records, to assess whether a person’s professional profile is genuine.

“We’re not just verifying who you are. We’re trying to understand your professional credibility,” he asserts.

The Biggest Problem Isn’t AI

Khanna says building the technology wasn’t the hardest challenge. It was building the network. Like many social platforms, Match It Up faces the classic cold start problem. Without enough users, meaningful matches become difficult.

“The technology itself is straightforward. But platforms like ours become valuable only after reaching critical mass,” he adds.

Changing user behaviour has been equally difficult. The company considered removing follower counts and profile views entirely. The reaction surprised them. 

“People immediately started asking, ‘Who viewed my profile?’ and ‘How many followers do I have?’” he explains, adding that years of social media use have conditioned users to measure success by visibility rather than meaningful relationships.

Building Communities Instead of Conferences

The platform officially launched in May and currently has around 500 active users after removing inactive early testers.

For now, the founder says revenue isn’t the priority. The company offers a free plan alongside paid tiers priced at ₹349 and ₹599, and provides early adopters with free access to premium features.

Khanna believes networking products must first prove their value before users are willing to pay. “Networking platforms like ours are always nice-to-have products before they become must-haves,” he adds.

The seven-member startup is also preparing to launch Android and iOS apps, which are currently in beta, and expand its Brew Circles initiative. The company is currently speaking with cafes and co-working spaces to create location-based professional communities that enable nearby users to connect instantly.

“Our goal is simple. We want networking to happen where professionals already are,” he affirms.

Looking ahead, Khanna believes networking itself could eventually become autonomous. He imagines AI agents understanding professional goals, identifying relevant people, and initiating introductions automatically.

That can be done through the startup’s Network Bot, which is designed with APIs, SDKs, and Model Context Protocol (MCP) compatibility, enabling external AI agents to interact with the platform.

“Eventually, AI agents will need trusted ways to communicate with one another. We believe Network Bot can play that role,” he notes.

For decades, professional networking has depended on luck—meeting the right person at the right event or knowing someone who knows someone. Startups like Match It Up are betting that AI can replace that randomness with intent.