Introducing jastado

I think one of the most beautiful things about finding the right partner is that you no longer have to experience life alone.

You have someone next to you.

Someone to share the small moments with. Someone to make decisions with. Someone to dream with, travel with, laugh with, and build a future with.

You can decide together what kind of life you want to live.

And if you both want to start a family, there is something even more beautiful that can come from that.

Children bring so much joy into life. They bring randomness, curiosity, and a kind of purity that you cannot experience anywhere else.

They change your life in ways you could never fully imagine.

As a father, I know how meaningful that can be.

And this is one of the reasons I believe finding a compatible partner matters so much.

Because it is not just about finding someone.

It is about finding someone with whom you can build a life you love.

Finding someone is not the same as finding someone who fits

And that made me think more deeply about how people find each other.

I've used dating apps myself, although not for very long.

I was surprised by how little useful information I could actually get about the people I was being shown.

I could see photos. A few interests. Some prompts.

But there were so many things that mattered to me that I couldn't really understand upfront.

How does this person handle conflict?

How do they communicate when something is wrong?

How do they make decisions when they disagree with someone?

What do they expect from everyday life together?

How do they think about money, household responsibilities, time together, and independence?

These are not necessarily things you can discover from a photo or a few interests.

And oftentimes, the things that eventually become difficult in a relationship are not the things you notice at the beginning.

The first chemistry can be there. You enjoy spending time together. Everything feels exciting.

But after a while, once that initial chemistry settles down, you start experiencing real life together.

And this is where the differences begin to surface.

Maybe you discover that you communicate very differently when there is a conflict.

Maybe one person wants to talk everything through immediately, while the other needs time and space.

Maybe you have completely different expectations about how household work should be divided.

Maybe one person is naturally more focused on saving while the other prefers to spend.

Maybe you have very different expectations about how much time you want to spend together, how much independence you need, or what everyday life should look like.

These differences don't necessarily make either person wrong.

But they can make two people less compatible.

And the problem is that you often only discover them after spending a significant amount of time together.

By then, you have shared experiences. You have memories together. You may already be emotionally invested in the relationship.

And suddenly discovering that your expectations about important parts of life are fundamentally different is much harder than knowing it earlier.

That made me wonder:

What if we could understand more about someone before we invest so much time into finding out?

What if we could look beyond the first impression and explore the things that actually determine whether two people could build a life together?

Building a map of compatibility

I was thinking: what if there was a way to take two real personalities and put them next to each other?

Their expectations. Their values. Their habits. The way they communicate. The things they want from life.

And then explore how those two people might fit together across hundreds of different situations.

What happens when they disagree?

What do they expect from each other at home?

What matters to them, and what is non-negotiable?

It would be amazing if a system like this existed:

A way to put two people into a virtual environment, let them experience different situations together, and see how their relationship would play out on a longer timeframe.

We are not there yet.

But I started thinking about what the closest version of that could look like today.

And the closest I could get was a deep compatibility questionnaire.

Not a questionnaire with thousands of questions.

Not an attempt to turn a person into a collection of data points.

But a focused set of questions that explores the things that actually matter when two people build a life together.

Some of those questions are obvious. Others are things you might not think to ask until you are already in a relationship.

And I don't think jastado should decide on its own what all of those questions are.

Part of the questionnaire should be shaped by the people using it.

As more people use jastado, they can help us understand which questions are important to them, which questions reveal meaningful differences, and which questions simply add noise.

Our job is to provide the direction, the structure, and the guidance to keep that process focused.

Because I don't want jastado to become a catalogue of 3,000 questions that nobody wants to answer.

I want to find the core.

The questions that are important enough to ask upfront.

The things that you might otherwise discover in month three, month six, month nine, or even after a year of being together.

And I believe that if we can identify those questions and get honest answers to them early, we can radically reduce the amount of time people spend trying to discover compatibility through trial and error.

So instead of just getting you dates, we focus on getting you dates that are more likely to turn into something amazing - because the person you are meeting is very likely compatible with you.

And even in the worst-case scenario, you might still meet someone who becomes a great friend.

Because you have similar minds. You share important values. You enjoy the same things. You understand each other.

That would be the ideal world I want to build towards with jastado.

Not just helping you find someone to date.

But helping you find people who actually fit your life.

Building something better

I was disappointed by the results I was getting from the dating apps I tried.

I was surprised by how little useful information I could actually get about the people I was being shown.

I consider myself a regular guy. Someone who knows what he wants from life and what matters to him.

So I started thinking about what a dating app could look like if it tried to give you a much more complete picture of another person.

Not just a few photos and interests.

But as much meaningful information as possible.

Because people are complicated. We have different values, habits, expectations, interests, ways of communicating, and ideas about the future.

And I think all of those layers can tell us something about whether two people might fit together.

For me, interests are an important part of that.

I actually met my partner through a shared interest: dancing.

And I think there is something powerful about meeting someone who already enjoys doing the things you enjoy.

You immediately have something to connect over. Something to experience together. Something that can naturally bring two people closer.

So I think a dating app should take that seriously.

Photos can tell you something about chemistry and attraction.

Voice can tell you something about how someone feels and expresses themselves.

Shared interests can tell you what you might enjoy doing together.

And compatibility questions can help you understand the deeper things that are harder to see at first.

Put all of those layers together, and I believe we can give people a much better chance of finding someone who genuinely fits their life.

But there was another part that mattered to me just as much.

If we are going to give people all of this information, they should actually be able to use it.

Important compatibility filters and dealbreakers shouldn't be locked behind a paywall.

If something is important enough for you to decide whether someone could be your life partner, I believe you should be able to filter for it.

For free.

I don't want jastado to make money by putting a price on people's ability to find the right person.

And I don't want the dating experience to become a competition where paying more simply means being shown to more people, while everyone else gets pushed further down.

I wanted to build something different.

A dating app with an ethical premium model - where you pay for additional value, not for the basic ability to find your second half.

Because I believe finding a life partner is too important - for civilization.

That is the kind of dating app I wanted to build.

One that gives you a fuller picture of the people you meet.

One that gives you the tools to find the things that matter to you.

And one that gives compatibility the same importance as chemistry.

Because finding someone is one thing.

Finding someone who fits your future is something else entirely.

What comes next

I believe finding a partner is just the first step.

Because once you find someone who fits, there is so much more you can build together.

And I think technology and AI can help people with more than just finding each other.

It can help people make better decisions together.

Build shared goals.

Understand their finances.

Plan their future.

Create a life that they both love.

That is where I want jastado and future tools to go.

Dating is just the first step.

The bigger goal is to help people build a life they love.

And I hope people will genuinely love what we build. I'll do my best to keep improving it, listen to the people who use it, and always strive to bring them something better.

More soon.