A CEO of a dating app took to Twitter (now X) to rubbish the “gold digger” tag associated with women, but ended up triggering a debate on classism. Jasveer Singh, co-founder and CEO of Knot.dating, said that women who graduated from Ivy League colleges, IITs, and IIMs lead the user base. He added that more than 50 per cent of women on his dating platform earn over 30LPA. 

Women are gold diggers?

While sharing a screengrab from the dating platform, Singh wrote, “There’s a lot of chatter about Knot.dating- gold diggers, elitism, classism, etc,” before adding, “Women are gold diggers on Knot.dating?”

To counter the ‘gold digger’ narrative, Singh shared stats that painted a very different picture of the women on the platform. “More than 50% of women here earn over 30L+, they’re from top-tier colleges, Ivy League, IITs and IIMs- working at top startups and MNCs, they’ve worked hard to reach there.”

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On the allegations of the dating platform being “elitist” and “classist”, he said, “We’re not forcing anyone they join because they see the value. Now you’ll say they don’t know what’s good or bad- who are we to decide?”

What made the Internet furious?

Singh also tried to address the elephant in the room with real-life examples. “Your maid takes her slippers off at the gate, she can’t sit on your sofa and watch Netflix. A software engineer can’t walk into the CEO’s cabin and sit in their chair.” These problematic statements made the Internet furious.

The Gurgaon-based entrepreneur added, “The degree can vary, but it exists, and it will continue to exist,” and stressed the fact that “we live in a capitalist world”.

He said that he chose to go ahead with the top-down marketing approach and might open up a bit in the future. “This is a top-down GTM approach. We started with top-earning singles. Maybe in the future we’ll open it up a bit.”

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‘Just because society is classist…’

His real-life examples irked one social media user, who said that he is “not addressing the elephant in the room”, instead suggesting that “it exists” and one should “deal with it”. 

To this, Singh replied, “Shaadi ads in India openly say ‘girl should be fair, slim, convent educated’- is that okay? Bias exists everywhere: income, caste, gender, skin tone, profession, some are spoken, some are just silently accepted. The majority of women still seek financial security from men, but the reverse is rarely accepted. Yes, times are changing, but we’ve still got a long way to go. If that makes you uncomfortable, good. Truth usually does.”

“Saying ‘bias exists everywhere’ doesn’t justify building a platform that replicates it. Classism and elitism may be part of our reality, but product choices either challenge or reinforce them. Being intentional matters, especially when you’re shaping dating norms,” said another on social media. 

Singh, in response to this, said that they are not in the business that “solves” inequality. 

“Who told you that only poor or financially unstable women can be gold diggers and not the rich, successful ones? If you believe so, you know nothing about female psychology,” posted a third. 

A fourth asked: “So let me ask the question once again. Why are only men earning more than 50 LPA allowed to register on your matrimony?” Knot.dating allows men earning over 50LPA to join, while women have no such income restriction.

“Just because society is classist, does not mean you need to use that to earn money,” chimed in yet another social media user.