Rachel Harker

Rachel Harker is the founder and CEO of Tribal, a psychology-based dating and friendship app she built alongside co-founder and CTO Aneesh Bond. A clinical psychologist based in Sydney with over a decade of experience in youth mental health, Rachel completed a Master of Psychology (Clinical) at Bond University and spent around ten years at the youth mental health service headspace Camperdown, where she held various roles including Clinical Lead before stepping down to focus on Tribal full-time.

Tribal matches users on shared values, interests and communication styles through a questionnaire of 44 questions for dating and 33 for friendship, and its signature feature blurs profile photos for the first 72 hours after a match to encourage connection based on conversation rather than appearance. Rachel also operates a friendship-focused product, Connect by Tribal, and was included in the Global Dating Insights 'Women in Dating' Special Report 2025.

Rachel believes aligned values are the key to any lasting friendship or relationship, which forms the psychological basis for Tribal's matching. She argues that judging a person purely by their photo has fostered a culture of objectification and self-surveillance that isn't healthy or sustainable, and sees an opportunity to redesign how people connect.