Love has no color.

This is a message Shaun VanWeelden wholeheartedly tries to spread through the interracial dating website he co-founded called SwirlMingle.

VanWeelden, senior in software engineering at Iowa State, is set to graduate in May.

Since the love of his life is a different race than him, VanWeelden wanted to spread the message that race and cultural background should not get in the way of who you fall in love with.

“My fiancé is a black woman, and so there is definitely some things that come up that most couples don’t have to deal with,” VanWeelden said. “I think Iowa’s better than most places, especially like in the South sometimes you don’t date outside your own race. It’s just a big social [stigma] — you don’t do it.”

Rewind six years to 2010, when VanWeelden met his fiancé, Kenechi Francis. The two were studying abroad in Spain and were in the same Spanish class.

“We were just friends, Francis said. Back then, if you could go back, I would not think that I would be with Shaun today.”

Three years later, VanWeelden decided to go to New York and stay with a friend. Coincidentally, he ended up staying with Francis instead.

“My mom loved him, like, from the moment she met him she wanted him to be my husband,” Francis said.

A year later, Francis’ mother invited Shaun to Trinidad, Francis’ home country.

“That’s when it all happened,” Francis said. “A week in Trinidad — I felt like I knew him my whole life.”

One thing VanWeelden said he likes about interracial dating is that people can learn about each other’s cultures a lot. Francis, being from New York and Trinidad originally, makes for a completely different cultural background than VanWeelden’s.

“There’s a lot of things that we can learn about each other that we can kind of laugh at or share with, like I would’ve never thought this way or she would’ve never thought this way about some other stuff,” VanWeelden said.

VanWeelden said a downside to interracial dating is how many stares he and his fiancé receive.

“Even today, in 2016, it’s still seen as weird sometimes where people are like, oh, that’s a really weird couple,” VanWeelden said.

VanWeelden said he is fortunate that both his and Francis’ parents are very supporting of the interracial relationship between the two.

VanWeelden started coding for SwirlMingle in July 2015 and spent six months working on it with Jacob Mason, the other founder, until it was finally launched in December 2015.

“We launched about mid-December, right during Finals Week, which is probably a stressful time to launch it, but we went for it,” VanWeelden said.

VanWeelden has previously done freelance work and has worked for Microsoft and Amazon.

“I love it,” VanWeelden said. “Being able to work at somewhere like Microsoft or Amazon, is first of all, it’s a really cool opportunity, but when you work there, you’re surrounded by all these amazing people who are actually doing really, really big things with software.”

VanWeelden is set to move to California after graduation to work full-time at a large software startup called Twilio and work more closely Mason. 

Mason does a lot of petition work and lobbying, and also has done marketing for roofing companies in the past.

“Really, you know, my whole focus when it comes to side work has been SwirlMingle,” Mason said. 

Mason, who does all of the marketing and business work for the website, used to create YouTube videos about social issues he believed were important. Many people reached out to him, which inspired him to create SwirlMingle.

“I committed myself to try to change that in the world, like, to try to figure a way to create a stable environment where people feel not as intimidated,” Mason said.

Mason said the concept and name for the website came to him in a dream.

“I like to say that most of the things that I come up with come from my dreams,” he said. “I’ve always been a firm believer in that.”

The two co-founders met on Instagram. VanWeelden and Francis had been following Mason’s account because Mason posted interracial relationship photos.

“One day, he put out some competition or something and we were going to submit our picture and that’s how [VanWeelden and Mason] got in touch,” Francis said.

VanWeelden and Mason wanted to create a safe online place where people could meet each other.

“It was really weird,” VanWeelden said. “[Mason] had posted something that was like, ‘hey, I want to make a website that, you know, is for people looking for a simple community and what not.’ And I was like, ‘hey, I want to do that too. I think that’s a really cool idea, let’s try to develop an online community where people can come together and really just emphasize the fact that love has no color.’”

VanWeelden reached out to Mason and they quickly began corresponding. Having a shared vision made it easier for them to accomplish their goals.

Another component of the website is the 2016 prom tour. The idea of the prom tour is to bring people together and offer them a do-over of prom with the love of their life.

“So many people had a really crappy prom, like wouldn’t they love to redo it with the actual love of their life?” VanWeelden said.

Mason said this idea stemmed from another one of his dreams.

“I realized, you know, we could gain tons of respect and also show that we’re about love with SwirlMingle if we give adults a second chance at prom,” Mason said.

Mason said he and VanWeelden hope to make to prom event an annual occurrence.

VanWeelden said the responses for the website vary. On the one hand, many people love what VanWeelden and Mason are doing.

“They really like the idea that love has no color and it’s a site for people open to dating anybody, any other race,” VanWeelden said.

On the other hand, VanWeelden said there’s been a lot of backlash. Some people think dating outside of their race is traitorous, while others perceive the website as a fetish.

“A lot of black men, and some black women too, they question his motives, which is understandable, but they don’t really give him a chance,” VanWeelden said. “They’re just like, ‘oh, this guy is just fantasizing black women. He doesn’t really love them, for them.’”

VanWeelden said the website has more African-American women who use it than any other demographic, thanks to how many African-American women follow Mason on social media. VanWeelden also said he’s already received a couple emails from people saying they’re deleting their account because they’ve found someone, despite the website only being up and running for about four months.

VanWeelden said a common misconception is that he is an advocate for interracial dating.

“I would feel like I am an advocate for loving who you want to love without color,” VanWeelden said. “I don’t think interracial dating is better than regular dating. I think it should just be another option.”

VanWeelden hopes to continue advocating the idea that love has no color.

“I’m not amazing at marketing or things like that, and so what I can do is I can code really, really well,” VanWeelden said. “And so I can code up a website or a blog or something like that, that enables people to share their own message, share their stories and ideally continue the conversation that love has no color.”