I quietly set up my online profile while my husband was in the other room — I filled out my likes, dislikes, and what I would prefer like to do if we met up. It took the algorithm a couple minutes before spitting out what it thought would be ideal matches.
I scrolled and scrolled and that’s when I spotted them: the perfect match. They liked to bike, hike, and…play on the playground.
No, dear reader, I’m not secretly on Tinder or Hinge or any other dating app. I’m on IT’S July, a new matchmaking app for families.
Meaningful connections
IT’S July is an Israeli startup founded by three women — all moms — who have a deep desire to help families make meaningful connections with other families.
“At first, we started as a travel search engine for families,” said Tal Provizor Narkiss, co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer. “But then our customers were telling us that they don’t want just another tip or list of touristy places to go, they also want to actually meet other families when they travel. They want to connect.”
So, Provizor Narkiss along with her other founders, Tamar Liberman, CEO, and Lee Winfield, COO, hit pause on the travel search engine and went back to the drawing board.
[People] don’t want another tip or list of touristy places to go, they want to actually meet other families when they travel.
Tal Provizor Narkiss
‘We were sitting in the office, working late, debating on how we should do it,” said Provizor Narkiss.
That’s when someone mentioned Tinder.
“It just made so much sense. It was such an aha moment…the three of us sat in the office just like, ‘oh my gosh how has no one made this already?’”
So, in May 2021, they set out to make it themselves.
At first, it started as a simple webpage and an excel sheet — the three founders had to manually match the families themselves. But very soon, the idea caught on and as more and more families signed up, the team knew they needed to build an algorithm to match the families. Today, everything is fully automated.
How IT’S July works
It’s a web-based app (you won’t find it in Apple or Google app stores at the moment), so you’ll need to go to itsjuly.com to sign up. You create an account by filling out a form: how many kids you have, their ages, and your family’s likes and dislikes. You’ll describe what you’d like to do for a first meet up, such as meet up at a park or restaurant. You can also upload a family photo.
And that’s it — right now, there’s no cost or subscription fees.
You’ll be matched based on your preferences and family makeup and you can message your matches within the app.
“You can meet families from anywhere. We had families from the U.K. meeting families from Kenya when they traveled to Kenya,” said Provizor Narkiss.
“For us, that’s what we’re here for: to enable families to connect to different families. We say like-minded families, but it doesn’t have to be that, you can meet anyone and expose your children to different cultures and different experiences.”
Right now, IT’S July has launched in over 40 countries, primarily in Europe.
“The last nation that opened was the United Emirates. We’re expanding, not just upon our decision, [but] because it just grows organically.”
Cultural Immersion
There’s more than 10,000 families on the platform. That’s tremendous growth in a short amount of time. Still one of the biggest challenges the startup faces is density. In order for a family to find a great match within a city, there needs to be a lot of users within that city. That density is something the startup is currently working on.
IT’S July hasn’t officially launched in the US yet, but Americans can still make a profile and find a few stateside matches. However, unlike European users who will often use the app to find families within their home city, Americans will see the most value out of the app when they’re traveling to Europe.
You can meet anyone and expose your children to different cultures and different experiences.”
Tal Provizor Narkiss
And, as with any social platform, safety can be a concern.
“There’s no safety measure that will be perfect by itself,” Liberman told PhocusWire this summer. “So we take several actions in order to vet the families that join the platform.”
According to Liberman, IT’S July has several measures to ensure the safety of its community: profiles on IT’S July are cross-checked with other social media accounts to verify identity; rating system where families rate their matches so the system can learn and improve accordingly; and direct communication with families who have been matched.
Finding a family match while traveling doesn’t only help you find friends — and thus a way to entertain the kids! — but it helps you provide a rich cultural experience for your entire family.
“It’s mainly for the children. Seeing local children, interacting, seeing how their house is built, how their games are, how they dress, [can help them] gain some cultural understanding,” said Liberman.
We saw that when my family traveled to Costa Rica last Spring. Our English-speaking four year old son began playing with local, Spanish-speaking children. Before too long, he had made friends with them and even tried to speak their language. If IT’S July can scale meaningful connections like that, then all of our kids will be better off for it.