Inner Circle - 173tech

Data Launcher

Building a scalable data stack for rapid growth

Objective

Establish Inner Circle’s data stack from the ground up ensuring immediate business impact whilst thinking long term.

Obstacle

Dating apps generate enormous data volumes, often reaching petabyte scale.

Outcome

A modern, scalable data stack ready for Inner Circle’s new data hire to take over.

Background

Inner Circle is a premium dating app designed to bring together a community of ambitious, driven, and life-loving singles by carefully screening every profile. Their unique approach to creating meaningful connections relies on maintaining a high standard of user experience and engagement. As they embarked on their analytics journey, Inner Circle sought a partner with deep expertise in data-driven strategies and a proven track record in the dating industry.

They turned to 173tech for support, recognising our extensive experience and specialised knowledge. Our founding team had previously built the analytics infrastructure for Bumble, one of the world’s leading dating platforms, and was well-equipped to guide Inner Circle in establishing a robust data framework. This project aimed to set up the foundational analytics systems necessary to empower Inner Circle with insights to drive growth, optimise user experiences, and scale their platform effectively.

Challenges

Impartial Advice: Inner Circle needed unbiased guidance to navigate the complex ecosystem of analytics tools available. With numerous platforms offering overlapping features but varying in cost, scalability, and ease of use, they wanted a clear understanding of the pros and cons of each option.

Focus on Business Impact: While Inner Circle planned to grow their internal data team, they were keen to avoid a scenario where these new hires spent months building infrastructure and integrating data sources instead of delivering business value. They wanted their data team to hit the ground running, focusing on actionable insights and impactful strategies rather than getting bogged down in foundational setup work.

Scalable Infrastructure for Growing Data Needs: Drawing from our first-hand experience with the massive data volumes generated by dating apps, reaching petabytes (1,000 terabytes) daily, we understood the importance of scalability in data systems. Although Inner Circle was relatively small at the time we started working with them, their future growth required a robust data infrastructure capable of handling significant increases in data volume and complexity as their user base expanded.

Solution

Future-Proofing: Inner Circle required a data infrastructure that could adapt to future needs, particularly when incorporating new data sources like survey data other ad-hoc data sources. They wanted a flexible solution that would not require extensive remodelling with every update. Snowflake emerged as the ideal platform, offering the scalability and adaptability they needed.

Cost Control: While Snowflake provided the flexibility and performance Inner Circle required, we knew from experience that its costs could escalate without proper governance. To address this, we implemented strong documentation detailing the architecture, processes, and guidelines for extending the infrastructure.

Impact

Strong Foundations: Our work went beyond tool selection, it centred on creating well-modelled concepts and core data tables that mapped directly to Inner Circle’s customer journey. By analysing in-app features and usage behaviours, we identified patterns that correlated with engagement and retention. These insights informed a set of intuitive dashboards, enabling the team to monitor user health and optimise experiences in real time.

Empowering the New Team: In just 12 weeks, we built Inner Circle’s full data stack, modelled their core reporting, and provided clear documentation. This allowed their incoming data hire to take over seamlessly, with a defined structure, best practices, and the freedom to focus on delivering insights from day one.

Actionable Impact: We delivered intuitive dashboards visualising engagement drivers, enabling product and marketing teams to quickly identify which features boosted user satisfaction. This real-time visibility empowered the team to refine in-app experiences, directly contributing to the 33% increase in time spent.