New York’s Love Guru Nandini Mullaji Loves Love (and Atoms)

The love genie in a bottle—author of the popular Substack newsletter Guru Nandini Says and founder of New York’s newest dating app, Sitch NYC—Nandini Mullaji absolutely loves love.

A true romantic at heart, Nandini has known she wanted to bring people together since her senior year of high school. She started a column in her high school magazine called “Guru Nandini Says” to give romantic advice to other students. Later in college, she started setting up her friends. 

250+ couples and three weddings later, she’s launched her very own dating app. We sat down with Nandini to chat about love, her app, and why she loves Atoms.

Love is the most important decision you make in life

When Nandini was in business school, she was inspired by businesswoman and best-selling author Sheryl Sandberg who said, “Your life partner will have the highest correlation to your personal happiness, life, and professional success.” Sandberg’s advice begs a question: How do you find that person? Historically, the answer hasn’t been so simple.

“We don’t have the resources, tools, and support to go about this,” says Nandini.“We have career coaches, trainers, dietitians, and therapists,” Nandini says. “Why not have someone be your dating concierge?”

She wanted to go beyond just introducing people, but to have an entire ecosystem around helping people be better at making this important decision. Then came Sitch NYC.

More than just a romantic connection

According to Nandini, romantic love is important, but people need all kinds of love, in different layers and flavors. While people often focus on romantic love, Nandini believes platonic love is equally important.

“One person can’t sustain you. It’s a community that sustains you,” says Nandini.

Nandini finds that people can be too focused on finding romantic love, without being intentional about what a healthy relationship requires. She believes that working on love is as important as finding love. Date nights, communication, working on yourself, showing your appreciation, and doing things together are all part of being in love.