The Daily Mail has a story up about a new (in development) app called HeroBoyfriend. The app is born from the developer’s experience of being blindsided by a breakup with a woman who clearly wasn’t into him from the very beginning:
We met on the beach in Philip Island, New Years Eve 2002. She told me she was from Zimbabwe and I believed her. She spoke with this funny accent which I later learned was an in-joke between girlfriends. It was a way to tease would-be suitors like myself. She was captivating. Tall, dark with amazing brown eyes. I could tell she was creative and probably complex. I fell for her straight away.
It took 6 weeks before she agreed to go on a date with me.
The most surprising part of the story is that she stayed with him for twelve years.
In early 2014 I quit my job as a successful lawyer and launched a startup. Within 3 months my 12 year relationship with the girl of my dreams was dead. The girl I thought I would grow old with was now “my ex”, and I was left trying to make sense of the broken pieces. This my story of how it happened, what I learned and why I started HeroBoyfriend.com
Not surprisingly the app is designed to build a better beta. From the press section of the app’s website:
HeroBoyfriend, you don’t have to treat her mean to keep her keen.
Mobile application begins enlisting applicants for the private beta of its boyfriend improvement (girlfriend retention) service.
Ouch.
Not all of the advice is bad, as it does recommend exercising regularly and dressing well. But most of it is as cringworthy as you would expect from an app born of beta confusion and desperation.
I suspect the app will do well as it is selling conventional wisdom. They can also count on a good deal of free advertising both from papers like the Mail and via social media.
Leave a Reply