CrossPaths, Inc.

CrossPaths exists to help college students build meaningful relationships through a campus-specific alternative to swipe culture. Our mission is to make meeting new people feel intentional, exciting, and actually fun again by using a compatibility-based survey and matching algorithm built around shared values, personality, and interests. We want to replace the awkward, transactional feel of dating apps with something more human and more relevant to college life. Instead of endless swiping, students receive one meaningful match, and all matches are revealed at the same time, creating a fun, shared experience across campus.

CrossPaths is necessary because college students are looking for better ways to form meaningful connections, but the current options often fall short. Most students still rely on the same limited channels: existing friend groups, dorms, classes, parties, and clubs. While those settings can foster meaningful relationships, they are also inherently narrow. If a student does not naturally fall into the right circles, it can be surprisingly difficult to meet people outside the same recurring social networks. At the same time, traditional dating apps are often too superficial, too appearance-driven, and too disconnected from the actual social fabric of a college campus. For many students, they feel less like a genuine way to build relationships and more like an impersonal game. CrossPaths was created to offer a better alternative. Our model is different because it is designed specifically for college communities. Students complete a survey that includes multiple choice, scale-based, and written responses, and our algorithm uses that information to generate a high-quality match based on compatibility rather than a profile photo and a two-second first impression. Instead of endless swiping, students receive one meaningful match, and everyone gets their result at the same time. That shared reveal turns the experience into a campus event rather than a private, isolating app interaction. The result is something more personal, more memorable, and better suited to the way relationships form in college. At Notre Dame, we’ve matched 3,250 undergraduates and 650 graduate students. That represents roughly 40% of the undergraduate population and 16% of the graduate population. We also generated revenue from paid early reveals and re-spins, showing that students are not only interested in the concept, but willing to pay for parts of the experience when the product is compelling. This level of traction suggests that the need is real, not theoretical. Students are actively looking for a better way to connect, and they respond when that experience feels tailored to their own campus. Our next phase is to launch at 10 new schools and use that expansion to refine a repeatable campus growth playbook built around ambassadors, social media, email distribution, and school-specific marketing. From there, we plan to expand to 250 schools over the next several years, focusing on large campuses where strong social energy, dense student networks, and word-of-mouth can drive rapid adoption. One day, we hope to be THE dating app for young people, tapping into the $10B online dating industry and creating a safer, more meaningful experience for college students to find love. At a broader level, CrossPaths addresses a real and growing need. Students are more connected online than ever, yet many still feel socially isolated, stuck within narrow circles, or dissatisfied with the current dating app experience. We believe college students deserve something better than endless swiping and shallow interactions. CrossPaths offers a structured, safer, and more intentional way to meet people, which is exactly why it is necessary.