Alexandra Chong is a visionary entrepreneur and founder whose drive has been pushing the boundaries of connection technology and social dating for over a decade. As founder and CEO of Lulu, the popular female-only social networking app she created for the express purpose of connecting women, Chong has tirelessly pursued her vision of empowering female self-expression, communication, and connection. At the same time her business savvy and innovative ideas have built a robust network through Lulu and various other products and services she has developed or helped create. Her aim is to create a dynamic connection technology with applications that are both beneficial to women and the wider global community.
Chong's journey began in 2006, when she graduated from McGill University with a degree in Law and launched her first social networking site, Girl Wealth. From the start, she was intent on creating an online platform that provided real-life connections, sharing, and information for female entrepreneurs. She followed that site up with another, Girls Who Travel, which focused on connecting young women in 60 countries who were interested in travel, culture, and adventure. Though these projects didn’t last past the dot.com crash, they left a lasting impression on Chong, who still believes strongly in fostering new connections and initiatives to drive global change.
After the dot.com crash, Chong recognized the potential of smartphones and their ability to create meaningful connections and help people share their stories. Chong's research on consumer behaviour from her previous endeavours was instrumental in establishing the foundations that would eventually become Lulu. She conceptualized a way to allow women to rate and evaluate potential matches’ pictures and profiles, thus creating an effective way for women to make better informed decisions about their partners. This was not only an effective way to create connections, but a new way to filter out less suitable candidates. Chong first launched version 1.0 of Lulu in 2012 as a location-based dating service, enabling users to review potential matches before making a decision and customize their experiences for better results.
Since its launch, Lulu has grown from strength to strength, becoming one of the most popular dating apps for women across the world. However, Chong was far from done innovating. Recognizing the importance of safety during the initial connections and interactions, she quickly developed the app's safety feature to protect users from any potential harm. Chong also collaborated with several entertainment and lifestyle influencers to further enhance the app's features, allowing users to filter potential partners based on mutual interests as well. Furthermore, Chong recently announced an upgrade to the app, known as LULU 2.0, which not only allows users to create and curate their own profile, but also provides users with secure one-touch authentication for enhanced security.
Beyond Lulu, Chong has lent her innovative brain power to The League, an elite dating app where users are vetted based on their educational and professional qualifications, Hasthree.org, a female-centric crowdfunding platform, and Athena, an app designed to connect women who have been victims of sexual harassment. Through both the products she has personally developed and her various investments in innovative startups, Chong clearly has a vision for creating the future of personal connections and social dating.
In the near future, Chong will be launching Mana, a groundbreaking dating and social networking platform designed to optimize and streamline the process of finding people with similar interests, backgrounds, and desired outcomes. She has also committed to creating and supporting other services that will help people create meaningful connections, and improving access to various services and platforms.
It is evident that Alexandra Chong shares an ambitious vision to lead the charge in innovating safe and meaningful connections between individuals and technology. By developing solutions that are both empowering and beneficial, she is making it easier to create meaningful and lasting relationships. From her first project to the many enterprises she has founded or co-founded since then, Chong has shown a commitment to using her resources and skills to help people create more meaningful and secure connections. The impact she has made to date is one that can already be felt—and will continue to be felt across the social networking landscape, as she continues to focus her efforts on the possibilities of the future. Undoubtedly, Alexandra Chong is a true visionary who is building the future of dating and social connecting.
