Mehr attended business school at the University of California at Berkeley, but he dropped out to work on Zoosk.
[8] In April 2014, Zoosk filed S-1 paperwork for an initial public offering as it sought to raise $100 million in capital.
[10] Despite $200 million in revenue collected in 2014, as well as a profit the previous year, Zoosk lost money in 2014 due to the company overspending on expansion and over-hiring.
To improve revenue, the company decided in November 2014 to require a paid membership to send messages.
[11] The deal was finalized on July 1, 2019, forming North America's second-largest dating company in revenues.
Zoosk uses big data and algorithmic recommendations technology to help users find partners.
[10] Its "proprietary Behavioral Matchmaking engine" learns from users' clicks, messaging, and other actions to help produce more accurate matches.
[13] To verify a photo, users are asked to take a video selfie in order to record their appearance from multiple angles.
[19] In 2014, the San Francisco Business Times also named Shayan Zadeh to its 40 Under 40 list of Bay Area entrepreneurs.