Max Fischer

The workplace romance is a great American pastime. But hooking up with a coworker is a highly analog experience. What if there were a way to digitize the amorous feelings that arise in professional settings?

While BeLinked doesn’t want to be known as the app that creates awkward mornings-after in offices or at conferences, it nonetheless derives from the insight that more and more people were using LinkedIn, which some consider the most buttoned-up and professional of social networks, to score dates. BeLinked taps into the LinkedIn user base, bringing a Tinder-like functionality to it (only for those who opt-in). A reboot of the app, which first began testing the waters in March under a different name, launches today.

Who’s looked at your profile is one of the most used features on LinkedIn. You never know who might be admiring you.

We spoke with 28-year-old CEO Max Fischer about the new ways ambitious professionals are hooking up.

FAST COMPANY: What is BeLinked?



MAX FISCHER: BeLinked used to be called LinkedUp, which first went live in March. It’s the first mobile dating app based off the LinkedIn platform. We’ve changed names. We’re also offering enormous enhancements, including a new feature called BeIntroduced. BeIntroduced gives you the option to suggest a potential match, letting people act as matchmakers.

Why the name change? Did you get a cease-and-desist letter from LinkedIn?



We worked constructively with LinkedIn in order to delineate the brand. It was a constructive, positive dialogue. LinkedIn’s amazing, and without them we wouldn’t exist.

How’d you get the idea? Why did we need this next step beyond Tinder?



I had noticed more people going on dates through the LinkedIn platform itself. Some of my friends were searching for dates on LinkedIn. It’d start off subtly, but escalate to more of a romance. What’s beautiful and amazing about LinkedIn is the unbelievably high quality of the user base. I myself have been on a LinkedIn date, and I noticed that we had more in common as a result of seeing more about each other.