‘Love Tech’ Founder Makes Relationship Science Relevant With Viral TikToks

A new relationship app, called Lovewick, attempts to solve a problem that is mostly neglected by popular dating apps: how to help couples who have found love, keep it. The growth of the app, driven primarily viral TikTok videos, has landed the start-up $1 million in pre-seed funding.

I recently spoke with Lovewick’s founder, Ali Maggioncalda, to learn more about her entrepreneurial journey. Here is a summary of our conversation.

Mark Travers: First of all, what is Lovewick and how did it come to be?

Ali Maggioncalda: Lovewick is an app that helps couples who’ve found love, keep it. Research suggests that fulfilling, lasting relationships take intention, but even with a degree in human behavioral biology from Stanford, I didn’t feel well equipped to do that! After diving into the relationship science literature and doing my grad school dissertation on design, tech, and modern love, I couldn’t ignore this need for a product between dating apps and couples’ therapy. So, when I graduated, I set out to build something to help couples work on their relationships that felt both fun and evidence-based. Now, it’s a real product with 100k+ users and 4.9 stars on the App Store. It’s been a wild and immensely rewarding ride so far.

Travers: Let’s talk about TikTok and science. How were you able to grow an audience using science and psychology as a content source?

Maggioncalda: Incorporating science into my content was not my plan when I started TikTok. I knew that research was the foundation of my design decisions and content in the app, but I assumed TikTok was more about entertainment than learning — I was so wrong. For more than a month, I focused on conversation starters and date idea content, but then on a whim I duetted a TikTok from another creator about sex and housework, chiming in with the research on how women who perceive a more equitable split in household responsibilities tend to report more satisfying sex lives but that men (more so than women) overestimate the housework they do. It blew up with over a million views overnight. Even though I was a bit anxious about all the visibility and strong opinions in the comments, I was super excited. I’m a love nerd through and through, and I have years of synthesizing research in my arsenal. If this is what people want, I thought, let’s lean into it! 

Travers: Why did you choose TikTok as the platform to grow your audience over other social sites?

Maggioncalda: I’m the oldest of 11 grandkids, and my little cousins and siblings turned me on to TikTok. I was blown away by the discoverability TikTok affords you without already having an established audience. As a solo founder with a live product but no marketing budget, it was a no-brainer to at least experiment with translating content from the app into mini ‘ads’ on TikTok to get early adopters. I never expected it to be my main acquisition channel. I genuinely thought I was ‘too old’ for TikTok when I started!

Travers: What do you say to content creators, especially in the science niche, who may be hesitant to get on TikTok?

Maggioncalda: TikTok and content creation isn’t for everyone — not everyone enjoys being ‘on stage’ in that way! That said, if you’re holding back out of fear of judgment or looking silly, I’ve been there. The thing is, if you’re an expert in your domain, and you know there’s a ton of insights trapped in academic jargon and behind journal paywalls that could help improve people’s lives, it’s a valuable and genuine service to translate that information and get it into people’s hands (or minds) through whatever means necessary. For instance, when I learned about stereotype threat, how ‘in the air’ negative stereotypes about a group you belong to can significantly hurt your performance in school and the workplace, I was kind of upset. Why hadn’t I learned that before I had decided I wasn’t good at math? I’m basically trying to do that for relationships — make folks aware of biases and pitfalls before they’re on the brink of divorce.

Travers: Where do you see the future of love tech apps and products heading, given your familiarity in the space?

Maggioncalda: I don’t mean to be alarmist, but the path of least resistance is outsourcing our emotional and physical needs to technology and that feels pretty ‘black mirror’ to me. In my dissertation I explored virtual reality porn, sex robots, chatbot friendships, cuddle cafes, and more. That’s a big reason why I built Lovewick. I want tech to help us make our relationships more human so we don’t feel like we have to tell our secrets to an AI or get intimacy from a machine. That said, people are complicated! They make mistakes, they change, but I think that complexity is worth fighting for.

Travers: Last question: What is your most viewed TikTok post? And what is your favorite TikTok video of all time?

Ah, fun! My most viewed is actually quite recent. In December, I did a TikTok on the importance of sex “aftercare” (like cuddling or pillow talk, any ritual that makes you and your partner feel cared for) and linked it to research on post-coital dysphoria (PCD). The goal was to normalize feelings around feeling needy, sad, or even irritable after sex and not quite understanding why. The comments and engagement (over 5 million views) suggest that this is a real gap in sex education, and even just an awareness of PCD can help you be less critical of yourself or your partner if it happens and cultivate aftercare rituals.

My favorite of another person’s is probably Natalie Railey’s (@parodymom) “Know your F-ing Wife” TikTok. As a joke, she made her husband a binder of things that after more than a decade together, he should really know — her favorite pizza toppings, her shoe size, the names of distant relatives, etc. It was hilarious but also resonated with people on such a deep level! When I stitched it with our Lovewick feature ‘Forget-me-nots,’ which is literally a place to keep that info, people loved it! I get a ton of inspiration for my content from other creators like Natalie, who strike a chord with their communities when they talk about their relationships. It’s also great user research to see what topics and stories get folks’ attention.