Two sisters are launching a startup called Hot Girl Hotline to bring artificial intelligence into relationship advice for young women.
Women have always sought relationship guidance from newspaper columnists like “Dear Abby,” letters to Cosmo, or by chatting with girlfriends. In the social media era, people instead post anonymously on Reddit relationship forums or look to social media creators who discuss the topic.
The problem with general chatbots
The reality is that people have already been turning to large language models via apps like ChatGPT for this type of advice. The team believes this activity should be handled more carefully.
Chatting with a general-purpose chatbot about personal topics can sometimes lead to disastrous effects. This is especially true for those who were already mentally fragile. ChatGPT has faced a wave of lawsuits over alleged manipulative conversation tactics that plaintiffs say contributed to negative mental health effects, including, in some cases, suicide.
The idea behind Hot Girl Hotline is to reach young women who are looking to have these sorts of private conversations while navigating dating life and relationships, but in a safer way.
How the app works
“We’re not trying to be an AI companion,” Baila Mudgil explained. She is a former social media consultant who co-founded the startup with her sister Sumrin, who studied computer science at Stanford.
Baila added that Sumrin goes by the name “Sumi”. She noted that a companion is really going after solving loneliness, escapism, and boredom. You can rely on a lot of emotional dependency from that AI companion.
The startup’s approach focuses on offering quality advice grounded in behavioural science. It does so in a way that makes it feel like you’re chatting with a trusted friend or big sister. The conversation is often Socratic, with the AI asking you questions to help you arrive at the answer yourself.
“This is not to replace speaking to a human. This is not clinical advice, and we have a lot of safeguards in place,” Baila said. “We take safety really seriously.”
If conversations raise flags, for instance, the user is referred to resources such as the crisis hotline 988.
“We believe the key to quality advice is not just knowing what to do next; it’s understanding why you’re doing it. So that’s a big piece of it,” Sumi added.
Notably, the AI also knows when to end the conversation. It does not keep asking follow-up questions to drag you further down a rabbit hole. Instead, it pushes users to go take action out in the real world rather than ruminate on the problem.
The sisters believe there is room for an app like this because not everyone wants to post on the web for advice. There are times when you do not want to bring up a personal, dating, or relationship-focused issue with a friend.
Friends can bring their own biases into the conversation. The user may not want to put their partner on blast for something they did before they determine whether they’re going to work through it or end the relationship.
“It doesn’t mean you’re replacing your friend — you’re just trying to get another perspective,” Baila said of the hotline.
The app also personalises its advice for each user to reflect their values, goals, identity, and tastes.
Privacy and business model
Under the hood, the startup relies on a mix of AI models. It encrypts users’ data in transit and at rest. It does not sell or train on the data. When it uses a third-party AI model, it follows a zero-data-retention policy there as well.
Hot Girl Hotline plans to monetise through a $9.99 per month subscription. Hundreds of its most active users are already paying for it. Later, it may incorporate ads too.
Relationship advice is just the beginning of how the company wants to cater to young women. It also plans to expand into other areas, like beauty and lifestyle.
New York-based Hot Girl Hotline is currently bootstrapped and will be participating in TechCrunch Disrupt’s upcoming Startup Battlefield 200. It is available on iOS and the web.
What it means
The tool aims to stop users from getting stuck in a loop of overthinking problems. It forces a break from the screen to encourage real-world action.
