Dingl

Overview

Dingl is a mobile-first social networking platform designed exclusively for university students. Rather than focusing solely on dating, the platform creates a digital campus where students can discover new people, build friendships, join interest-based communities, and form meaningful relationships. Daniel led the product from concept through architecture, designing the backend, developing the Flutter application, and building the supporting web presence.

The problem

University students often rely on fragmented platforms for different social experiences—Instagram for content, WhatsApp for communities, dating apps for relationships, and school groups for networking. None are designed around the unique social dynamics of campus life, making it difficult for students to discover people nearby, find communities, or build authentic connections within their universities.

Approach

1. Designed a campus-first social experience

   Created the platform around verified university communities, ensuring students could discover and interact with people from their own campuses while maintaining a sense of trust and relevance.

2. Built a feature-rich Flutter application

   Developed the cross-platform mobile app in Flutter, delivering a native experience across Android and iOS while maintaining a single codebase for rapid iteration.

3. Engineered a scalable backend

   Designed and implemented REST APIs using Express.js, TypeScript, and MongoDB to support authentication, user discovery, social feeds, notifications, messaging, and relationship features.

4. Created multiple social interaction models

   Implemented features including Vibes (short-form social posts), Friend Finder, Hubs (interest-based communities), personalized discovery, likes, notifications, and real-time messaging to encourage different types of social engagement.

5. Built the supporting product ecosystem

   Developed the company's React-based marketing website and established the technical foundation for future growth, allowing the mobile application and web presence to evolve independently.

Impact

• Built a complete mobile-first social networking platform tailored specifically to university students.
• Unified friendship discovery, community engagement, and dating into a single campus-focused experience.
• Delivered a scalable backend architecture capable of supporting multiple social features from a shared API.
• Established Dingl's technical foundation from product architecture through deployment as the company's founding engineer.
• Created an extensible platform capable of evolving with new campus-focused social experiences over time.