Greater Expectations | Video Dating for the New Millennium

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Inspiration

Dating apps are everywhere but they’re failing most people. On average, it takes nearly 4,000 swipes to find a significant other on dating apps, and many men report having to swipe over 1,000 times just to snag one coffee date. Add that to the data showing that only the top 10% of men receive 90% of women’s attention, and it’s clear: most users get lost in an algorithmic lottery.

More staggering: men receive matches at rates as low as 0.6%–2%, meaning they must swipe a huge volume to see results. Meanwhile, women swipe far less, only about 14% of the time, compared to men’s 46% swipe-right rate, which reinforces the imbalance even further.

What it does

Greater Expectations is a video-first, personality-forward dating app designed to cut through the noise. No filters. No swiping. No catfishing. Just real people, being themselves.

Users answer a series of fun, thoughtful, and sometimes deep questions using short 20–30 second video responses. These videos are displayed in a scrollable, TikTok-style feed, allowing others to get an authentic feel for their personality — how they speak, how they laugh, how they show up.

It’s not about the perfect photo. It’s about real human connection, right from the start.

We were inspired by the 1980s video dating service Great Expectations — yes, the one with the cheesy late-night ads — where people made connections by watching someone speak instead of guessing from a photo.

How we built it

We built Greater Expectations using Blot, which made it easy to prototype a fast and flexible full-stack app without needing a ton of boilerplate.

For the 80s-style visuals, we used RunwayML to generate nostalgic video scenes.
Background music was created with Suno, keeping the vibe consistent with the era.
Voiceovers and narration were handled through Murf.ai, giving us high-quality, natural-sounding audio.
We used Riverside.fm to pull everything together into a cohesive sizzle reel.
Hosted on Netlify with backend services via Supabase for user authentication, database, and storage.

The video format mimics the feel of social media feeds, but with purpose. Users record short answers to personality-driven questions, watch others’ responses, and connect based on real human energy — not just a static profile pic.

Challenges we ran into

Getting everything to work together smoothly wasn’t easy — especially on a tight timeline.

I only found out about the hackathon on June 24, and it’s due June 30. It’s just me, building this solo, with no coding experience.

Video storage and playback: Making sure videos were saved, recalled, and played reliably from user profiles was tricky, especially while trying to keep things fast and lightweight.
Custom domain deployment: Connecting everything to a custom domain using Netlify and Supabase gave me some headaches — I ran into authentication issues and CORS errors along the way.
Data persistence: Keeping user info and interests tied to their video content required a bit more backend logic than I expected.
Content moderation: I explored AI tools like Hive and Sightengine, but opted for a user-moderated flagging system during beta to keep it simple and affordable.

Despite the steep learning curve, it’s been a blast to figure this all out — and the core experience is live and working!

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Built a functional video-based dating app in less than a week — solo, with zero prior coding experience
Launched on a custom domain with full frontend and backend functionality using Blot, Netlify, and Supabase
Designed and implemented a scrollable TikTok-style Q&A feed to help users showcase their personalities
Created a full 80s-themed brand, including:
- AI-generated retro video assets with RunwayML
- Original 80s-style music using Suno
- Voiceover narration with Murf.ai
Pulled it all together with Riverside.fm to produce a nostalgic promo video

What started as a wild idea turned into a working prototype — one that just might change the way we think about dating.

What we learned

Blot is powerful — even with zero coding experience, I was able to build and launch a fully functional app in just a few days.
Video-first dating makes sense — when you watch someone speak, you instantly get a better read on their vibe than you ever could from a filtered selfie or generic bio.
AI tools are incredible accelerators — platforms like RunwayML, Suno, and Murf made it possible to create an entire brand and aesthetic without hiring a team.
Done is better than perfect — sometimes you have to just push forward, solve one problem at a time, and let the rough edges show. That’s where the good stuff happens.
People are excited about something real — the feedback from early testers has been encouraging. There's a hunger for more genuine, less gamified dating experiences.

Most importantly? You don’t need to know how to code to bring your idea to life — you just need the right tools and a little bit of stubbornness.

What's next for Greater Expectations | Video Dating for the New Millennium

Add early users to continue testing the beta and collect feedback on usability, video quality, and overall experience
Soft launch in two cities with high concentrations of singles and lower ad rates — giving us the critical density we need without breaking the bank
Improve backend functionality so user videos, bios, and interests are reliably saved and surfaced
Explore basic monetization options (like freemium access or limited subscriptions) once the app proves sticky
Add AI-assisted content moderation, or integrate tools like Hive or Sightengine if needed at scale
Continue iterating on design, UX, and onboarding flows to make everything smoother and more intuitive

The vision is simple: make dating feel real again. Greater Expectations is just getting started.