John will never forget his first Raya date.
He met the woman at her million-dollar NYC apartment, paid for by her father who, she happened to mention, had recently flown one of the presidential candidates on his private plane.
“Within minutes, she got naked, handed me her phone and asked me to photograph her. She had floor-to-ceiling windows and her doorman was watching us from [the street],” says John. (Names have been changed to protect dating viability and Raya membership.)
“The app’s incredible,” he says.
Launched in March, Raya quickly became known as the online dating app for all the people too cool to online date. It’s a virtual Soho House with a curated membership of artist and model types, and, of course, a few celebrities thrown in for good measure.
Joe Jonas, Kelly Osbourne, Moby, DJs Skrillex and Diplo, “Catfish” host Nev Schulman, Raven-Symoné and model/celeb scion Patrick Schwarzenegger have all been spotted on the app. Some “Dancing With the Stars” pros are allegedly members, as is film director Paul Haggis. Last month, Page Six reported that Courtney Love and her 15-years-younger new boyfriend, director Nicholas Jarecki, are on Raya.
“I saw Matt Perry,” says a 30-year-old female who works in real estate in NYC, citing the “Friends” star. “We matched,” she adds, nonplussed.
Once you download the app, you can apply for membership. Applications are judged by an individual’s overall Instagram influence and how many active Raya members follow them. An anonymous committee decides who’s in and who’s out. It costs $7.99 a month for the privilege of being on Raya, but some who score highly with the committee are given complimentary memberships.
“It’s all the models that I shoot but can’t ask out because I’m in a professional setting,” says one 30-something downtown photographer. “There are some people on there that I question every now and then, but it’s a population . . . with a hell of a lot of nines and 10s.”
Raya founder Mike McGuiness, 35, who owns Los Angeles p.r. company the Co-Op Agency, declined to speak to The Post.
Other Raya staffers have yet to give an interview or expose their identities. A source told The Post the creators are guys in LA who, as part of their business model, dole out equity to tastemakers to recruit talent.
“[The app’s] got this whole ‘Fight Club’ vibe to it,” says Henry Lihn, 35, a startup consultant and Raya member. “They send out updates: You can’t publicly out people, you can’t screenshot. Really, the company is doing everything it can to create a disruptive exclusive experience.”
But while Lihn thinks the founders have “nailed” the clubbish environment, he predicts Raya’s days are limited — at least among the elite.
“It’s a small pond and it gets saturated very quickly,” says one Raya member. “For the more pretentious of us, it’s done.”