Bae works pretty much like Tinder, but tailor-made for black users.The Gerrards came up with the idea after they realized how difficult it is for black singles to find dates on existing platforms.The operation is based in Brian’s small apartment in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, where basketballs roll around in the living room and old record covers hang on the wall.Their progress is tracked on a whiteboard, which lists the tasks of various team members and two questions scrawled in teenage-boy handwriting: “What did you accomplish yesterday? ” There is beer in the fridge, an Oculus Rift virtual-reality headset near the TV, and the bathroom is what you would expect from a 20-something dude in Brooklyn.

Pew found in 2012 that 36% of black people over the age of 25 had never been married, up from 9% in 1960.

“Nine times out of 10 if we’re pursuing an investor, it is likely not somebody who has experienced what it’s like to date as a black person in America,” Brian says.

Almost every black entrepreneur faces this challenge.

The Gerrards cite an OKCupid study showing that black users experience a strong negative bias in online dating.

In 2014, black women were 17% to 20% less likely to get responses from non-black men on OKCupid, while black men were 8% to 27% less likely to match with a woman of a different race.