Yekaterina (Katya) Chernyak
About Yekaterina (Katya) Chernyak
I am a co-founder & CEO of FFWD (Fast-Forward) Dating, a new, game-changing dating app modernizing how we select our prospective matches online. Instead of static photos & text, FFWD uses unique in-app video profiles to reveal the real life person behind each profile - their energy and vibe - even before you tap "like" on them. That means no more catfishing, no more awkward first dates, and no more wasted time trying to pick your matches based on static photos! Until 2021, I spent nearly 15 years practicing as a corporate attorney at an international white-shoe law firm in NYC. My entrepreneurial journey started with a very personal issue: my long-standing frustration with online dating. Despite intense efforts - dabbling in all the existing apps - I was failing. Selecting potential romantic partners based on photos, I was frequently misjudging bad prospects as good and missing good prospects completely. I knew there had to be a better way: a tool that shows the most authentic and real-life representation of your prospective match. But it didn't exist. Because I'm a fire-starter, I decided to do it myself. So I set out on a months-long journey to research and explore all possible solution options, which is how FFWD took shape. We're proudly led by an all-female/LGBTQ+ team, who is driven by our singular desire to make online dating a more efficient and optimistic process.