Why I built NexSpark

A letter from Matthew Firth, founder & matchmaker

I've spent thirty years building software — e-commerce systems that handled millions of orders, enterprise platforms, AI and IoT infrastructure. I know how these products are designed, and I know what they're designed for. So let me tell you something uncomfortable about dating apps, from someone who builds things like them for a living:

A dating app's best customer is someone who never finds anyone. The moment you fall in love, you stop paying.

That's not a conspiracy theory; it's just incentives. Subscription businesses optimize for retention. In dating, retention means you're still single. Every design choice follows from there — the endless deck of cards, the intermittent rewards, the matches that go nowhere but keep you opening the app. The product isn't broken. It's working exactly as intended. It's just not working for you.

I watched people I care about pour years into that machine. Smart, warm, genuinely available people, getting more tired and more cynical every season — not because there was anything wrong with them, but because they were playing a game whose house always wins.

NexSpark is my answer. It's built on one principle, and everything else follows from it: we only get paid when two people choose each other. Not when you subscribe. Not when you swipe. When you both read why you fit, and you both say yes. If we don't make introductions worth saying yes to, we don't have a business — which is exactly the pressure a matchmaker should be under.

The AI matters — it can weigh values, lifestyle, and dealbreakers across every verified member in a city, in both directions, more thoroughly than any human ever could. But I review every introduction myself before it reaches you. The algorithm finds the overlap in two lives; my job is to ask whether you'd actually enjoy a rainy Tuesday together. If I wouldn't introduce you at my own dinner table, you won't be introduced here.

We're starting in Atlanta, deliberately small. Every member is identity-verified. Everyone is anonymous until both people choose otherwise. And during our launch, all of it is free — because the first thing I want from you isn't your money. It's your second-date story.

If you're tired of the apps, I built this for you.