Launching love with Emily Heazlewood
Changing the dating scene with her matchmaking application, Christchurch entrepreneur Emily Heazlewood has a knack for turning ideas into reality – or apps. She catches up with Metropol Deputy Editor Nina Tucker on sacrifice, self-teaching, and saying yes.
People are talking about love. Relationship dynamics and meaningful connections are hot topics. The Japanese government even launched a matchmaking programme to encourage relationships and boost population numbers. Lately, love looks like it’s being rescued. Theresa Gattung created Compatico in February, and the latest, Emily’s Amor, launched in late April,
is quickly gaining traction.
Emily’s initial drive came from being told she wouldn’t follow through with it. “I needed to prove it to myself and prove it to them. I love to live by my word.” With help from friends and family and a tick of approval from New Zealand’s top relationship expert, Emily built Amor. Self-taught in more ways than one, Emily drew from her passion for apps and business. “I love apps. I live
through apps.”
An unhappy relationship behind her, and the state of the modern dating landscape, as well as growing up watching her parents realise their incompatibility, sent Emily searching for a solution. With five successful siblings, and a family home that encouraged business talk and ambition, Emily knew she would make something happen, and the majority of it, she would do on her own.
“It’s been a long, long road. I’ve been dreaming about this for about a year now. It’s good to be here, but it’s also quite stressful.”
Emily was the recipient of the Christchurch Foundation’s Women’s Entrepreneurs Fund 2023, which came at a pivotal money moment. Recognition, validation, and the ability to hire a developer for a few hours a week, it was a massive enabler for Amor, even though she already felt luckier than most with start-ups. “I know people need it more. I’m very fortunate. But yes, it’s burning a hole in my back pocket.”
To make it work, Emily put her house on Airbnb and moved in with her brother. She was determined to put every dollar she could into the dream. It was a balancing act and it wasn’t smooth sailing. Emily went through weeks of uncertainty when Apple told her they were not accepting any more dating apps. “I have definitely got more greys in the last year,” she laughs. The sacrifices were heavy, yet accountability kept her going. “I always say to people, talk about your idea early, because you will be accountable to it. I talked to a few key mentors about it and they were keeping
me accountable.”
Emily adds that pursuing this idea was entirely new. “I’ve tried so many ideas, but there’s this feeling you get. You’re just like a dog with a bone and you won’t give up.”
Between working full-time in investment, paying a mortgage, mowing the lawns at her house, cleaning up after guests, and coding the app until midnight, Emily kept going, getting back up at 5am each day to hustle. The team at Coffee Culture Riccarton saw a lot of the extremely driven, early-morning Emily. Somehow, she made it happen. “It took a massive community. I would not say it was just me that did it all.”
Emily’s no stranger to business déjà vu, having released the app Romer too, just a few years after finishing high school. Nicknamed the ‘Tinder for things to do,’ Romer displays all the must-dos in a city, including events, activities, eateries, and walks. It was an idea that came about after travelling in Melbourne, where Emily was relying on a friend for both the well-known and ‘locals-only’ spots to check out. Comparing the two, she says that back then, “The highs were super high, and the lows were super low,” yet feels she has a better handle on it this time. “When I did Romer, I burnt out so much and overworked. This time, I’ve been really good at taking breaks.”
Amor’s onboarding process is detailed compared with typical dating apps, however, it works in favour of finding a better match. Attachment style, personality type, love language, goals, values, and beliefs all come into play. Going deeper, Emily included questions that consider how money is spent in a relationship, whether bank accounts would be shared, and how independence might be maintained, to encourage key discussions. With up to four matches a week, physical appearance withheld at the start, and in-person date night events make the rest of the difference, an excited Emily explains, with a golden retriever-like energy. “I’m just being a nerd, and really proud of my product,” she laughs. That belief in her product is one of the major contributors to her success. It was something that, when noticed in a coffee shop and asked to pitch Romer to a table of 12 men dressed in suits, motivated her to get up, walk over, and introduce her product. It ended up landing her two new investors. “You have got to give to people to get back,” she says.
Make no mistake, Emily could happily spend her days at home in slippers and activewear, yet business often gets the better of this solution-driven Cantabrian. When she’s not launching apps, Emily loves walking her dog, is a DIYer, gardener and nature lover, although sometimes a walk will be interrupted by a dash back to the car to write down a new idea.
While she met her partner Josh Van der Meulen (pictured) along the way, Emily still resonates with the struggles of the people she sees on the app. Businesspeople, single parents, and those ready for love, who have all the time for privacy and and none for meaningless hook-ups.
Emily’s next steps for Amor are to introduce increased date nights, coaching, and hit the numbers to launch in Australia and Japan, and she’s looking to a future with a family of her own.
