Staying sober is a daily fight for recovered addicts. Having a community, and a romantic partner, who share the same goals can help them thrive together and stay off substances like alcohol and drugs. That’s why MJ Gottlied, co-founder and CEO of Loosid, created an app helping recovered addicts find both love and support from peers.
What inspired you to take the leap and start this company?
In 2017, I was advising my now-business partner on treatment center acquisitions, as her family had been deeply impacted by addiction, specifically opioids. During our research, we realized the scale of the problem: over 300 million people worldwide struggled with alcohol use disorder, and by 2017, 38% of adults—about 75.3 million people—suffered from substance use disorders. It became clear that meeting this overwhelming demand at scale required leveraging technology.
We decided to create a digital solution to bring the recovery community together.
As Loosid grew, one of the most significant pain points we noticed was sober individuals relapsing while dating due to the pressure to drink. Many of my sober friends were experiencing the same issues, and subsequently relapsing and many dying.
We had already built a sober dating component within the Loosid community app, however we soon realized the need to dedicate an entire app to provide a safe and supportive place for sober singles to connect… and so Loosid sober dating was born.
A lot of people say “what a great idea” and I always say it’s actually not a “great idea” but rather a product implemented based upon necessity.
What are your different lines of revenues?
Dating- Subscription revenue from Loosid Sober Dating is currently our strongest revenue stream. Total revenue is Up 37.68% ⇧ (Q2 vs Q3), Renewal Revenue Up 49.58% ⇧
SAM-Sobriety & Addiction Mentor™– Additionally, we have started the B2C component of SAM – Sobriety and Addiction Mentor™, which is a technology we recently implemented to help people stay accountable with their sobriety on a daily basis.
As we continue to offer SAM™ subscriptions to our userbase, our strongest focus for 2025 will be offering SAM™ as a B2B solution for treatment centers post-care and alumni tracking as well as EAPs (Employee Assistance Programs) and workforce wellness initiatives for large corporations across the U.S.
From a B2G perspective, we’re also exploring SAM’s integration into the criminal justice system and courts. Given that many individuals are incarcerated due to substance use, SAM can serve as a valuable tool for courts, incentivizing reduced probation time for participants while maintaining Loosid’s community platform free in perpetuity.
Advertising Revenue– We recently started accepting advertising revenue for presence into the Loosid feed. As we close in on 500,000 monthly sessions and 13 Million user sessions to date, giving exposure to brands in the sobriety and wellness space will be a major focus going into 2025. Advertising revenue is approximately 18% of our overall 2024 revenue.
Loosid Sober Shop– Last month (Nov) we introduced the Loosid Sober Shop as part of a LTV (lifetime value) strategy to offer merchandise to our (now) 290,000 members. Our goal is to get each Loosid member to buy at least one item per quarter form the sober shop. With a current average order value of 70.61$, the Loosid Sober shop has the ability to add nearly 300$ to overall LTV.
Loosid Marketplace – {as a measure of retention} We’ve recently launched the Loosid Marketplace, partnering with numerous sober, sober-adjacent and everyday brands to offer pre-negotiated discounts that our members would not otherwise be able to find anywhere else. We have implemented the marketplace as a powerful retention strategy for our member base as for every additional month a member stays engaged drives up ARPPU (average revenue per paying user). This is even more significant for our sober dating members, by offering them to save over 800$ per year on their favorite products.
Affiliate The Loosid marketplace operates under an affiliate model, where we earn revenue for each product sold. Rolled out just last month, we anticipate substantial growth in affiliate revenue in 2025.
In summary, our revenue streams include:
- Sober Dating subscriptions
- SAM
- subscriptions (B2C)
- SAM as a B2B solution (treatment centers, EAPs, workforce wellness)
- SAM as a B2G solution (criminal justice system)
- Advertising revenue
- Loosid Sober Shop
- Loosid Marketplace
It seems like the dating side of your business bring you the most revenues. Why would sober people want to date each others?
There’s a saying: “For those among us, no explanation is necessary; for those not among us, no explanation is possible.”
Most people in recovery face challenges dating someone who doesn’t understand the sensitivities surrounding addiction. A significant number of relapses occur due to the pressures to drink or use substances, often from individuals who can drink or use with impunity.
Bringing together people who share a common bond serves as a necessary safety measure, offering support and helping members live a fulfilling, sober life.
Additionally, the traditional dating model is based upon meeting at the bar. Sober people do quite the opposite thus their experiences vary considerably.
How can you retain customers once they found love?
We expect higher retention because once a Loosid member finds their partner, they are still sober and need all the things to stay sober that they did prior.
We’ve included a toggle that allows users to switch off dating and access the Loosid community and take advantage of all the additional features and functionalities of the Loosid community.
This increased retention inside the Loosid community will translate to more advertising dollars as every person inside the Loosid feed represents two eyeballs for a brand that is willing to pay us for access to that affinity group.
Additionally, our Loosid Marketplace offers exclusive discounts, saving members over $1,200 annually on average. We have also now included ALL premium services inside Loosid Premium such that a premium member who no longer needs to date can use SAM (Sobriety and Addiction Mentor), acquire the greatest discounts inside The Loosid Marketplace, as well as the biggest discounts on merchandise inside the Loosid Marketplace.
We feel we can increase user retention dramatically by never giving a reason for our members to leave.
What did you achieve in 2024 and can you give us an approximation of your revenue?
Achievements:
Revenue per month ⬆️1167% (4,671 v 59,219)
Swiper per month ⬆️ 1644% 175,420 v 3.06M
Active Subscriptions ⬆️ 670% (431 v 3,319)
Community sessions (monthly) ⬆️ 211% increase (131.7K v 410.5K)
Dating Sessions (monthly) ⬆️ 500.7% (37.4K v 224.6k)
For 2024 revenue approximately is $650,000 and the projected revenue for 2025 is $4.15M.
We will surpass 300,000 & 13M sessions to date
Increased revenue from 3000/month to 74,000/month
Loosid Advertising- Officially launched September 2024
Loosid Marketplace- Launch November 2024
Loosid Sobershop- Launched November 2024
What are your key milestones for 2025?
- 700,000 new members
- Total 6.68M
- 3.65M subscription revenue Dating & SAM™
- Surpass 150 brands inside Loosid marketplace
- 350,000 in advertising revenue affiliate commissions
- 1.8M 6 nation-wide pilots with SAM B2B for EAP and employee workforce (2 per quarter beginning Q2)
- Average size employee base per Corporation 25,000 @2$ per employee per month (300,00 monthly revenue for B2B SAM end of Q4 2025
- 884k Loosid Sobershop
- B2C- 320,000 new members (5% of new Loosid members buy at least one item = 16,000 @ 1 purchase per quarter at average order value of 50$= 800,000
- B2B- 225,000 – 24 treatment centers (2 per month) AOV 3,500= 84,000
- Nov 2025 Cash flow positive
- Based on 2025 milestones, please note valuation will significantly increase. Please see Wefunder Proforma ‘Valuation’ section