Shad Ali

In November 2025, I stopped working for brands and started building one of my own.I'm Shad Founder And Creative director of Cherry, a meet-first, women-first dating app built for a generation that's done with hollow swipes. Before this, I spent 4+ years in social media and brand marketing, starting as a freelancer, then growing through stints at CreativeFuel.io and multiple agencies learning exactly what makes people stop, engage, and actually care about a brand.Across those years I built meme-led campaigns, ran on-ground brand activations, worked with creator ecosystems, and figured out that the content that wins isn't polished it's real. That thinking is now the backbone of everything Cherry does: real meetups, real trust, real connections. We're not trying to be the next Bumble. We're trying to be the first Cherry.Right now we're deep in the Lucknow market building community, driving female-first adoption, and proving that Tier-2 India doesn't just deserve better dating apps, it's ready for them. If you're building in consumer tech, women-focused spaces, or just understand what it means to market to a city that's been underestimated let's connect.