Boss of dating app Thursday apologises after Linkedin layoffs post

The boss of dating app challenger Thursday has apologised after he received backlash over a social media post about layoffs at his startup.

In a now deleted Linkedin post from Tuesday, featuring a picture of the firm’s staff, George Rawlings said “70 per cent of the people you see in this picture have been made redundant”.

“Here’s the ironic part,” he added, “Thursday has never been stronger”.

The London-based startup describes itself as a dating “movement” and “singles member’s club” that encourages people to meet up in real life. The app only goes live on – you guessed it – Thursdays, when it hosts weekly pop-up nights in various locations across London and New York for singles to meet at.

Rawlings continued: “Relying on raising capital for fake success isn’t cutting it anymore. It’s time to focus on turning a profit.” He signed off saying he was writing from Cape Town in South Africa.

Thursday raised £2.5m in seed investment a few months after it launched in May 2021.

His lengthy emoji-littered post, however, received a mixture of support and criticism, with many saying the message was insensitive.

The founder has since apologised in a follow up post on Wednesday.

He wrote: “Yesterday’s post did not portray the message I was trying to and I owe it to current and former Thursday employees to correct this.”

When City A.M. approached Rawlings for comment he said: “I appreciate I may have got it wrong yesterday but I’m trying to do the right for the team going forward.”