After successful sign-ups, an MIT student turned a hoax dating app for Harvard students into a genuine matchmaking business

When an MIT freshman created a spoof dating app for Harvard students, he had no idea it would one day be turned into a working matchmaking algorithm. Liam Kronman told Insider that he came up with the idea for the "Harvard Marriage Pact" around a month ago to see how many students joined up. "It wasn't given any thought. It just occurred to me. It seemed natural, similar to pranking Harvard students while also getting to put my computer science talents to the test by creating a bogus dating app "Insider spoke with Kronman. "I simply wanted to see if I could complete it in an afternoon and see how it turned out. So, I wasn't really thinking about how people would react; instead, I was trying to have some fun while making fun of Harvard students."

While Kronman was initially interested in the algorithms that go into dating sites, he didn't have any. He was only interested in seeing if he could build the form and how many people would fill it out. The site was widely disseminated on the Cambridge campus before being shut down in mid-October in the wake of the debut of Marriage Pact, a matchmaking service that began at Stanford and has since extended to 64 universities.

The site received "an incredible quantity of answers," according to Kronman.

"We sought to reach out in a variety of ways," Liam J. McGregor, the executive director of Marriage Pact, told the Harvard Crimson. "We told them, 'Hey, we appreciate your excitement, but this isn't going to work.'"

According to the Crimson, students who filled out the form and submitted sensitive information such as their sexual orientation were afraid about being scammed after the site was shut down in mid-October.

Kronman relaunched ExExEx, a dating service with an actual matching algorithm, on October 31. He stated the site was relaunched after he and his unnamed partner realised the prank was "anticlimactic," adding that no one understood it was a prank at the time and people were worried they were being defrauded.

He explained that the new algorithm was based on the concept of someone being compatible with their ex's ex's ex.

"It was only a hunch that your dating choices might reflect those of your ex's ex. So the assumption is that you'll probably get along fine with your ex's ex's ex. It's not a sure thing, but it's an intriguing thought "he stated

Kronman said he started this one with the results of the prank app and has had some new sign-ups as well. He hopes to expand the concept, and for the time being, the algorithm only works when both the user and their ex-partner sign up for the site, with an option to invite your ex anonymously.