Tabby Dating App Update | Shark Tank Season 13

On regular dating apps, people with cats often struggled because having a cat was seen as a turn-off. Leigh Isaacson, the entrepreneur behind the dog-loving dating app Dig, joined forces with fellow cat lovers Nathan Kehn and Sterling Davis to help cat people connect. So they created Tabby, a dating app built to connect people who share a love for cats. Will this idea earn the sharks’ approval? Let’s find out in our Tabby update and pitch recap.

If you’re short on time, here’s a quick overview of what happened to Tabby after Shark Tank.

Leigh, Nathan, and Sterling entered Shark Tank Season 13, seeking $300,000 for 20% equity in their dating app. After their pitch, they landed a deal with Kevin O’Leary for $300,000 for 30% equity.

In terms of a Tabby update, the company struggled with buggy software and poor customer reviews, which led to its removal from Apple’s App Store. Sadly, Tabby Dates eventually went out of operation due to low revenue and declining user engagement across its platforms.

Shark:	Result:
Kevin O’Leary	Accepted deal for $300,000 for 30% equity
Lori Greiner	No Offer
Robert Herjavec	No Offer
Mark Cuban	No Offer
Nirav Tolia	No Offer

Shark Tank Tabby Pitch

• Entrepreneurs: Nathan Kehn, Sterling Davis, and Leigh Isaacson
• Business: A dating app for cat people
• Ask: $300,00 for 20% equity
• Result: $300,000 for 30% equity
• Shark: Kevin O’Leary

Entrepreneurs Leigh, Nathan, and Sterling presented their feline-friendly dating app, Tabby, to the sharks during Season 13.

Dog lovers could go to dog parks, bond over their pooches, and have pet playdates. Cat owners, on the other hand? There was nowhere for them to go to hang out with their pets (and each other).

So what was the solution? Leigh, one of the co-founders of Dig, the dog lover’s dating app, started Tabby to combat this problem.

She enlisted the help of Nathan, an influencer who focused on content involving his four cats, and Sterling, a cat rescue owner who sold everything to live out of his car and help feral cats. The trio was very passionate about cats, to say the least.

Lori Greiner, as it turned out, was also very passionate about felines. She loved the idea of anyone who was helping cats.

When asked, the entrepreneurs revealed that there were 17 million single cat owners in the US, and some studies suggested men with cats in their dating app profile pictures were also less likely to get a date. This dating app could help change that.

However, the numbers didn’t exactly make it seem like a great idea. This app won the Million Dollar Dating Project, which gave them $50,000 in equity-free funding in order to launch the app on the contest’s platform.

Though it was plagued with issues, the app boasted 31,000 users and had done $43,000 in lifetime revenue. $17,000 of that money was from the $19.99 monthly subscription, and $25,000 was from an integration partner.

They weren’t currently spending any money on marketing.

At this point, Mark Cuban was sure that he didn’t want anything to do with Tabby.

Marketing an app was hard work. They had funneled all of their efforts into the other platform instead of marketing, which he thought was a misstep. He dropped out.

Robert Herjavec followed because it just wasn’t for him.

Guest shark Nirav Tolia, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur who had developed several popular apps, said it was difficult to get distribution.

They would need to break through and have something unique. He thought that they had a long way to go, so he dropped out.

To everyone’s surprise, Kevin O’Leary was interested and made an offer. He was an investor in Basepaws, a huge database of cat owners from another deal.

He could integrate that database into the marketing for this app — it was a built-in audience. Mr wonderful then offered $300,000 for 30% equity, and the entrepreneurs countered with 25% equity, but Kevin refused.

Lori didn’t know anything about apps, and this really wasn’t her space. On her way out of the deal, she recommended that the entrepreneurs take Kevin’s offer, as it would likely be a good step forward for them.

They decided to accept Kevin’s offer, which seemed like the perfect deal (even if it was a little surprising).

Was this a good move for Kevin, who now boasted that he was building a ‘cat empire?’

Now, let’s get a Tabby update to see how the entrepreneurs are doing today.

Shark Tank Tabby Update

We have some sad news to report for our Tabby update. First, we have reasons to believe that the deal agreed on the show with Kevin did not eventually materialize due to some careful due diligence.

Shortly after that, in the months following Shark Tank, the app saw growth, reaching over 50,000 downloads.

But that was all there was in terms of good news, because weeks later, customer reviews described the app as buggy.

And by August 2022, the app had already disappeared from Apple’s App Store, though it lingered briefly on Google Play.

On February 14, 2022, Tabby made its final Instagram post.

Unfortunately, the business officially shut down due to poor revenue, negative user feedback from technical issues, and declining activity across its platforms.

After the business ended, Leigh became the Senior Manager of Marketing and Communications at Modern Hydrogen, a renewable energy equipment company, in June 2023.

Nathan continued to work as a cat influencer, while Sterling runs TrapKing Humane Cat Solutions, a nonprofit dedicated to humane cat trapping, neutering, and rehoming.

However, both Nathan and Sterling remain active in the cat community through their platforms and nonprofit work.

At this time, we won’t be reporting any other Tabby updates.

However, if anything changes in the future and the entrepreneurs decide to revive their business, we will definitely bring it here.

While this might be our final Tabby update, catch up on the other products from Shark Tank Season 13 Episode 4:

• The Magic 5 Custom Goggles Update
• SoaPen Update
• 54 Thrones Beauty Butter Update

For more on Shark Tank Season 13, be sure to check out our Season 13 products page.