I Am gegenteil founders Anni Kralisch-Pehlke and Jule Muller.
One nights latest summertime, Jule Muller and Anni Kralisch-Pehlke are going to call-it a night at their regional pub in Berlin’s Neukolln neighborhood, whenever the conversation considered relationship. “We expected our selves the reason why many of your buddies are still unmarried,” Kralisch-Pehlke mentioned. “immediately after which we came up with a company idea: to combine a lifestyle blog site with a dating weblog.”
The 2 invested the following week searching web sites in the UK plus the people for close ideas which help singles in large locations look for appreciation. If they cannot find one, they chose to begin their very own. With that, imgegenteil.de came to be.
Because the site’s introduction in December a year ago, it offers grown into symbolic of exactly what Kralisch-Pehlke, 30, and Muller, 31, have dubbed the slow-dating activity. Without a doubt, im gegenteil, which means that “on the contrary” in German, will be the polar contrary of mobile online dating software that let you know which inside instant vicinity wants to meet up for a drink… or higher. A standard criticism from consumers of mainstream internet dating sites or programs is the fact that consumer chooses older and unrepresentative photos and, deliberately or not, writes an entirely inaccurate details of on their own. To avoid these problems, im gegenteil requires a refreshingly different approach: each profile features a portfolio of images shot by Muller which were consumed in and around the hopeful’s room – the style could be described as studied yet everyday – with the dater pleasant to their couch or making a coffee. As well as the photo, each page includes a 300-word visibility, written by Kralisch-Pehlke, that summarises what the two learned all about the interviewee. The end result won’t keep an eye out of put on all pages and posts of a glossy lifestyle magazine. A contact kind in the bottom of this profile enables anybody on the web to create an email with the profiled individuals email on the webpage.
“its online dating sites, obviously, but the means is very different,” Kralisch-Pehlke mentioned. “it will take united states on a daily basis to create one visibility. We spend three, possibly four-hours doing the interview. We place the visibility together immediately after which submit they back once again to the individual for approval. It will require lots of time and I thought visitors can determine.”
Janina Fischer, 29: ‘we felt like I wanted a unique fit than what most online dating sites are giving me.’
The pages abandon the things they call “shallow realities,” such as for instance how long singles have now been in the online dating markets, exactly how large these include or what they’re trying to find in a partner. “It isn’t really this smooth hook-up website,” Muller mentioned. “On the web site, you probably need to use time and energy to search through images and read the messages.”
Up to now, you can find 75 pages on the internet site, mainly of people staying in Berlin or Hamburg. But that low quantity disguises im gegenteil’s appeal: thousands of everyone is reading the website’s profiles and internet dating blog site on a monthly basis, the creators say. And countless individuals from around Germany have actually used on getting profiled. “We wish we’re able to take all of them,” Muller said. “We try to create three portraits a week. After that will come another work involving our very own company – click, creating the blog, and partnerships.”
Karl Nowak is certainly one of I am gegenteil’s first consumers. The 28-year-old, who’s functioning at a music business startup, has not found adore but, but the guy likes the attention he’s got obtained. “one couple of weeks were daunting,” he mentioned. “something similar to 50 or 60 people blogged in my opinion.”
Wyndham Mead, an United states who has stayed in Berlin for the past 36 months, joined up with because he had been seeking an alternative to “impersonal gay adult dating sites”. “The great benefit of this site is you will get somebody else’s sound and attitude in your life,” the guy said. “and this automatically create a more genuine picture for the remainder of society to see.”
Mead stated he liked the way in which he as well as others profiled on the webpage could exchange stories in a shut Facebook people moderated by Muller and Kralisch-Pehlke. Probably one of the most discussed reports where fb party was actually Janina Fischer’s. The 29-year-old project supervisor and mommy of a daughter have tried various dating sites, but got switched off incidentally they’d usually suggest that 
she contact “45-year-old middle managers when you look at the Saarland or a great deal older dudes”. “we felt like i needed a special complement than a lot of dating sites were offering myself,” she said.
Karl Nowak, 28, certainly one of I am gegenteil’s first people: ‘initial couple of weeks were daunting. Something similar to 50 or 60 ladies typed to me.’
Within 2-3 weeks she met a person through I am gegenteil, after a common pal got appreciated photographs from the girl visibility that she got posted on Instagram. The go out went so well, she said, that she almost immediately changed this lady status on the internet site to “not any longer searching”. Fischer mentioned the alternative picture colored of this lady existence – she wasn’t simply a single mommy– is the answer to attracting the man she actually is now online dating.
“The thing about it site would be that truly super-public – you are heading public along with your want to see someone,” Fischer stated. “It’s not unknown like other adult dating sites. But maybe for this reason it truly does work.”
Muller and Kralisch-Pehlke say 25per cent of I am gegenteil’s customers have discovered a connection through the website since their creation. Inspired from this triumph, the duo quit her time opportunities latest winter to work regular from the business.
Im gegenteil builds earnings through goods giveaways and endorsements. The founders intend to include marketing and advertising tie-ins in order to consistently offering complimentary users. In order to attain their own goal of about 1,000 pages, they might be contracting writers and photographers from around European countries – and hope to start English-language versions for London and nyc into the coming period.
But will this site get rid of its individual touch whether or not it grows? The founders say no. “Regardless if we now have a lot of group, we could keep in touch with everyone on the webpage,” Kralisch-Pehlke mentioned. “exactly like you would with your own personal pals on Facebook.”