Known - Founding Product Operations

San Francisco, CA (in-person)
120-150k + equity

Known is a matchmaker that talks to users and supports them like a friend. Our mission is to make finding love one of the defining achievements of abundant general intelligence.

Users join Known by telling us their life story. On average, they spend 27 minutes talking to our conversational AI, sharing the experiences, hopes, and complexities that make them who they are. This gives us an extraordinary depth of personal context, and an even greater responsibility to earn and protect the trust behind it.

We are a team of ex-founders, engineers, and go-to-market operators who've helped build and scaled some of the world's most influential consumer AI products, including Uber, Uber Eats, Airbnb, Bland, and Faire.

We love to work hard, with a high degree of autonomy and ownership. We work together in Cow Hollow, San Francisco.

About the Role

We are looking for world class product thinkers to own Known’s product experience. Known strives to be the Apple of dating. Our team goes to extraordinary lengths to deliver a best in class user experience. We are a product-led, user-obsessed company. You will work directly with the founders to maintain and develop magical user experiences that change people's lives.

The Role

We expect you to own pieces of Known’s user experience. It’s up to you to decide what part of Known you’re most excited about working on.

This could be:

Designing product experimentation with notifications and user retention
Owning user metrics (onboarding, date conversion, and retention)
Developing Human-In-The-Loop processes across waitlist approval and matchmaking
Building an automated testing suite for new app builds
Coordinating app-store submissions and reviews

Working at Known means building intelligence that could lead to a million marriages and babies.

Our Investors

We’re backed by Eurie Kim and Kirsten Green at Forerunner Ventures (the investors behind Decagon, Faire, and Oura), NFX and PearVC.

About the company

Known uses a voice-first AI system to match people, conducting a conversational onboarding interview where an AI assistant asks open-ended questions and converts voice data into a detailed user profile. It applies advanced matching algorithms and behavioral insights to suggest compatible connections, aiming to turn introductions into in-person dates (early testing shows ~80% of introductions lead to meetings). Differentiators include a shift from text-based profiles to voice signals, a data-driven approach focused on outcomes, and high engagement during onboarding to build richer profiles. The goal is to help people form meaningful real-world connections through outcome-oriented pricing and scalable expansion beyond its San Francisco trial.

Company Size

11-50

Company Stage

Early VC

Total Funding

$9.7M

Headquarters

San Francisco, California

Founded

2025

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Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

Thousands of San Francisco users and half of matches reportedly accept real dates.
Average onboarding lasts 26 minutes, giving Known unusually dense preference data.
Expansion to Southern California, New York, and Austin is slated for 2026.

What critics are saying

Bumble cut 30% in June 2025; Match cut 13%, proving dating-app incumbents are shrinking.
Per-date fees create churn risk; if repeat dates lag, unit economics break by 2027.
A safety scandal or bad match would destroy trust and end Known’s growth.

What makes Known unique

Known replaces swipes with voice interviews, capturing richer signals than profile prompts.
It matches one person at a time and explains each pairing, reducing choice overload.
It charges per confirmed date, aligning revenue with offline outcomes rather than engagement.

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Benefits

Company Equity

Growth & Insights and Company News

Headcount

6 month growth

26%

1 year growth

33%

2 year growth

33%

KTVU

May 5th, 2026

Stanford dropouts raise $10M for AI dating app that ditches swiping for voice interviews

Two Stanford dropouts, Celeste Amadon and Asher Allen, both 22, have raised over $10 million to launch Known, an AI-powered dating app based in San Francisco. The platform launched in mid-February with backing from Forerunner Ventures, NFX and Pair VC. Known eliminates swiping and uses voice-based AI interviews during onboarding to create detailed user profiles. The app provides one compatible match at a time with explanations for the pairing, then handles date logistics including location and timing. Users only pay $15 per confirmed date. The app has attracted thousands of Bay Area users, with 50% of matches converting to actual dates compared to roughly 1 in 30 on traditional platforms. Currently limited to San Francisco, Known plans to expand to Southern California later this year. The company aims to address what founders call a "loneliness epidemic" by facilitating meaningful in-person connections.

TechCrunch

Dec 19th, 2025

Known uses voice AI to help you go on more in-person dates | TechCrunch

In its test phase in San Francisco, Known said it observed 80% of its introductions led to physical dates, which is much higher than swipe-based dating apps.

Known

Product Operations

About the job