The entire FFWD experience is designed around authenticity. Capturing that magic that comes from a candid conversation with someone in real life. The kind of spark that movie directors look for when they put two people in a scene together. You don’t get that from a picture. Even six pictures and a bio still don’t tell the whole story.

So we rethought the way dating profiles work. Instead of pictures, we have something new. We call it your Scene. The Scene is your unique in-app video profile consisting of specific sets of conversational cues designed to capture a living, breathing, genuine, multi-faceted person in front of you.

So before you ever match or message someone, you’ve already met them. You’ve seen them for who they are. And they see you for who you truly are.

And we make sure the Scenes only last for so long, making sure you always have a realistic, real-time sense of someone.

“The goal is for someone real to meet someone real. Authenticity is sexy.”

Aeen, FFWD Co-Founder

Making a Scene is simple.

 

1. 1. Open the app

1. 1. Hit record.

1. 1. Be yourself.

Scenes are simple.

1. The Spark – Answer a few “this or that” icebreakers to warm up. Like…

“Pool or ocean?”
“Listener or talker?”
“Early bird or night owl?”

2. The Flame – Answer a few open-ended questions designed to dig a little deeper while still keeping things fun. Like…

“If your life were a hashtag, what would it be?”
“What’s the first thing you would do if you won the lottery?”

3. Be yourself.

The questions are all carefully written by our experts to give freedom of choice while capturing some of the most vital moments of an initial conversation. The sort of things that let you know who this person is, and if they’re someone you want to get to know better.

The way they’re asked is unique as well. While we’re rolling out a range of options, your question will be asked by a voice. So it feels conversational. That way we capture more candid, honest moments in each Scene.

The only way to record your Scene is through our platform. While you can re-record as often as you’d like, we don’t allow uploading, filters, or editing. Everyone here is equal. Every moment in someone’s Scene is real.

Every so often you’ll be asked to re-record your Scene to keep things fresh and make sure you’re you. While this does a lot to end catfishing, this also makes sure people don’t overthink things. Just be yourself, knowing who you are today might be different from who you are in the future. You want to match with someone who likes you for who you are, not who you were.

Finally, we allow one cover photo for your Scene. This is to make sure you don’t get that awkward “pause face” where you’re mid-sentence or mid-blink. While we champion authenticity, we want you to feel confident with your profile. This is the only static photo allowed on our platform.

The goal of a Scene is to feel more conversational, both when you record and view the Scene, and each question is natural the way a friend or first date asking is. The Scene starts as soon as the question is asked so we capture those precious “in between” moments as you listen, react, and form an answer.

Katya, FFWD Co-Founder

Because everything we do is designed to help you FFWD to the one you’re looking for, we’re also the first & only app to introduce “expiring” conversations. Users must make their intros and take things off our app within certain time windows or move on. We never want someone to waste your time. The faster you get off our platform, the better.

The goal here is to get rid of the endless “pen-pal” mentality. The thing where convos linger and matches sort of fizzle. That’s not the goal. You’re here to get offline and start something in the real world. Even in the age of digital dates, you shouldn’t be weighed down by the grind of a traditional dating platform. What a waste of everyone’s time. Just make a Scene and FFWD to the one. It’s not that hard. Well, not anymore anyway.

“In the end, you should feel like you’ve already been on a mini first date with a person, so you get to just fast-forward to the second date!”

Aeen, FFWD Co-Founder

FFWD was created by two lifelong friends. Far from Silicon Valley, a driven corporate attorney and top-performing real estate agent, Katya & Aeen are just two people who were frustrated by the experience of online dating.

Dating apps aren’t really designed to help people date. This simply needed to exist and nobody else was doing it, so we left our careers to create a place where you can feel good about dating again.

Katya, FFWD Co-Founder

Their inexperience turned out to be their most powerful asset as they reimagined the way we date from the ground-up. Where the online dating scene left Katya unsatisfied, often airing out her frustrations with her best friend Aeen, someone who despite having met his husband online, had his fair share of disappointing experiences with dating sites, it became clear to both of them that online dating just doesn’t have the tools to help people judge the person behind the profile. They thought there has to be a better way. As it turns out, there wasn’t. So they made one.

Now their mission is realized through FFWD, a platform with a mission to help people get to know someone before they meet them, authentically and without filters. Less time wasted on dating sites, more real connections with more real people.

It all starts with you making a Scene.