????然而，布拉德福德與一年級同學當初下載Tinder的時候，便已經(jīng)明確了進入手機應(yīng)用行業(yè)的目標。因為這款應(yīng)用讓她們越來越著迷，越來越震驚。

????布拉德福德在位于舊金山的辦公室接受采訪時說道：“我們會在彼此之間發(fā)送當天看到的最恐怖的Tinder圖片，男孩子們做的蠢事，以及人們半裸的照片。”雖然她和閨蜜們時常嘲笑這款約會應(yīng)用里糟糕的約會對象，但在2013年底，另外一件事卻令布拉德福德感到震驚：幾乎所有人都在用它。

????布拉德福德說道：“我發(fā)現(xiàn)同齡消費者的行為發(fā)生了巨大的轉(zhuǎn)變。我交往的男孩和女孩以前從來不會選擇約會應(yīng)用……但突然之間，所有人都在手機上安裝了Tinder。我的同齡人都在使用這款軟件，這是一件有趣的事?！?/p>

????不過，她也看到了Tinder的問題所在。這款應(yīng)用上存在一些不端行為。Tinder有數(shù)以百萬計的用戶，篩選出一位能夠共處的約會對象并不容易。此外，約會應(yīng)用都有一個污點，“通常都以一夜情或約炮著稱，”她說道。此外，使用這種應(yīng)用會讓一個人尋找愛情或其他任何對象的過程公開化。許多成功人士不希望與約會應(yīng)用有任何關(guān)系，以免自己的個人和職業(yè)品牌受到影響。

????布拉德福德說道：“現(xiàn)在有一種不匹配的現(xiàn)象：一個人越成功，就越不可能使用約會應(yīng)用?！?/p>

????于是她產(chǎn)生了靈感。她沒有選擇為大眾開發(fā)另外一款充斥著無禮言論和粗俗照片的手機應(yīng)用，而是要創(chuàng)建一款面向“高素質(zhì)人才社區(qū)”的約會應(yīng)用，這些人都受過良好教育，是精明的成功人士。

????The League的大多數(shù)新會員將來自老會員推薦，該應(yīng)用會通過一種算法對申請者的教育與職業(yè)等級進行評估。這款應(yīng)用還將提供隱私設(shè)置，限制會員資料的訪問權(quán)限，比如禁止同事查看。布拉德福德說道：“你不必擔心會成為公司同事閑聊時的話題?！?/p>

????肯定有許多人希望有一款更優(yōu)秀的約會應(yīng)用，或考慮自己創(chuàng)建一款這樣的應(yīng)用，而斯坦福大學為布拉德福德提供了先天的優(yōu)勢，讓她能夠把這個想法付諸實施。她說道：“斯坦福大學非常支持我。我從來沒有見過創(chuàng)業(yè)氛圍如此濃厚的地方。我有一半同學正在研究創(chuàng)業(yè)或者正在創(chuàng)建公司，想知道如何創(chuàng)業(yè)——在斯坦福你會身臨其境。我向許多人征求意見，包括老師、演講嘉賓、校友以及曾經(jīng)創(chuàng)業(yè)的同學。”

????她成功加入了斯坦福創(chuàng)業(yè)工作室（Stanford Venture Studio）。來自不同學科的研究生都可以在這個工作室測試和開發(fā)商業(yè)創(chuàng)意，參與小組座談會，向成功的創(chuàng)業(yè)者和校友取經(jīng)，練習推銷技能等。

????布拉德福德通過向斯坦福大學創(chuàng)業(yè)學生商業(yè)協(xié)會（Business Association of Stanford Entrepreneurial Students，BASES）推銷，對自己的創(chuàng)意進行不斷完善。她還可以從閨蜜們那里得到持續(xù)的反饋，她們都是聰明進取的年輕人，也是這款應(yīng)用的目標群體。她說道，她在斯坦福大學的朋友“在產(chǎn)品成形和功能設(shè)置方面給我?guī)砹撕艽髥l(fā)?！?/p>

????在斯坦福大學的獨立研究課程期間，布拉德福德構(gòu)建出手機應(yīng)用的線框原型，并開發(fā)出應(yīng)用的技術(shù)規(guī)格。但在將原型開發(fā)外包給印度時，她卻遇到了麻煩，因為如果不能與其他開發(fā)者并肩工作，很難創(chuàng)建應(yīng)用的原型。

????最終，她選擇與德里克?斯塔恩合作。斯塔恩獲得了斯坦福大學國際關(guān)系專業(yè)文學學士學位，并擁有手機操作系統(tǒng)開發(fā)的專業(yè)知識，以及為風投工作的經(jīng)驗。

????現(xiàn)在，兩人正在對應(yīng)用進行最后修正，并繼續(xù)收集潛在會員信息。他們希望在數(shù)周內(nèi)上線，首先在舊金山，然后推廣到美國10個主要城市。

????布拉德福德為斯坦福大學MBA付出了巨額成本，換來的結(jié)果就是一款新的手機約會應(yīng)用，這是否值得？目前還沒有人知道答案。但她現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)得到了許多人的關(guān)注。畢竟，與性愛相關(guān)的產(chǎn)品總可以大賣。而能夠解決精英性愛問題的產(chǎn)品似乎更有市場。（財富中文網(wǎng)）

????譯者：劉進龍/汪皓

????Nonetheless, the path to app-dom was clear when Bradford and her first-year classmates downloaded Tinder and became increasingly intrigued–and appalled–by what they saw.

????“We would send each other the most horrifying Tinder pictures we’d seen that day, guys doing asinine things, half-naked people,” Bradford says in an interview at her San Francisco office. And though she and her friends would laugh about the awful material on the dating app, she was struck toward the end of 2013 by something else: just about everyone she knew was using it.

????“What I saw was a huge consumer behavior shift in my demographic,” Bradford says. “Guys and girls in my network who I’d never seen on a dating app … all of a sudden had this Tinder app installed on their phones. It was kind of this fun thing that everyone in my generation was doing.”

????But she saw problems with Tinder. There was the sleaze factor. There were millions of users, making it hard to sort out who might be compatible. Also, dating apps had a stigma, “this reputation for a one night stand, or a hookup,” she says. Furthermore, getting on such an app made a user’s search for love—or whatever—public. Many successful people didn’t want their personal and professional brands potentially tainted by association with a dating app.

????“There was this kind of mismatch: the more successful you were, the less likely you were to be on a dating app,” Bradford says.

????The light switch was thrown. Instead of creating another app for the masses to clutter with offensive comments and tasteless photos, she would create an alternative to be populated by “a high caliber community” of smart, well-educated, successful people.

????With The League, most new membership will come via referrals, and the app will use an algorithm to evaluate applicants’ educational and professional qualifications. The app will have privacy settings to regulate who sees a member’s profile, barring, for example, colleagues. “You don’t have to worry about being the talk of the water cooler at work,” Bradford says.

????While many people, no doubt, have wished for a better dating app or thought about creating one, Bradford’s position at Stanford put her in a spot to do something about it. “The Stanford ecosystem is very, very supportive,” she says. “I’ve never been to a more entrepreneurial place. Half my classes were on entrepreneurship, and launching a company, and how to start a company—it’s in the water there. I went to a ton of people for advice, from faculty, to speakers on campus, to alums, to people on campus who had done startups.”

????She applied successfully to get into the Stanford Venture Studio, a facility in which graduate students from all disciplines can test and develop business ideas, take part in group sessions, get advice from successful entrepreneurs and alumni, and practice pitching.

????Bradford refined her idea by pitching it to BASES, the Business Association of Stanford Entrepreneurial Students. And she sought constant feedback from her girlfriends, who were members of her target market of smart, up-and-coming young people. Her Stanford friends, she says, were “very instrumental in shaping the product and feature set.”

????During a Stanford independent study course, Bradford built the app’s wireframes, essentially blueprints. She created the technical specifications. But when she outsourced prototype development to India, she ran into difficulties, as she found no effective way to create the prototype without working side-by-side with other developers.

????Ultimately, she joined forces with Derrick Staten, who received a BA in International Relations from Stanford, but has expertise in mobile operating systems and experience in venture capital.

????Now, the two are putting the final touches on the app and continue to gather would-be members onto a waiting list. They hope to launch within weeks, first in San Francisco and eventually in up to 10 major U.S. cities.

????Will it be worth her big investment in a Stanford MBA? Who knows. But she’s already getting plenty of publicity. Sex, after all, sells. And sex among elites may sell even better.