Since graduating from Y Combinator in 2012, Grouper has been on a mission to help busy, overworked young people get away from the glow of computer screens and out into the real world to meet new people. To do that, the startup sends its members on “Groupers,” which are essentially blind, group dates between two groups of friends, designed to take the awkwardness out of one-on-one dating. → Read More
If you kind of liked the idea behind viral sensation Bang With Friends, the controversial Facebook app that lets you privately nominate friends you want to hook up with, but balked at the idea of using an app that’s all about the sex, then you might find newly launched Trintme to have some appeal. The name, a combo of “true intentions,” is not as clever, sadly – seriously, people, stop making up… → Read More
Regardless of what you think about digital dating sites, they encourage us to close our computers and get out there and meet new people. In short, they bring people together. The problem is, of course, that there are infinite variations on social and mobile dating, from compatibility engines and social, Facebook-based platforms to game-ified bracelets and live video dating. Then there are the… → Read More
Helping couples to stay happy, connected and in love is what HowAboutWe for Couples is all about. Each month, members receive a DateBook with beautifully presented, one-of-a-kind dates specifically curated for its users. Couples just have to select one of the romantic local experiences and the service will take care of everything. The newly launched service is HowAboutWe’s second product. The… → Read More
There are a lot of dating sites out there and the world doesn’t really need another one. That’s why the young, New York-based startup, Grouper, calls itself an “online social club” even though its members go on “Groupers” (i.e. dates) and sometimes even end up in relationships. In fact, founder and CEO Michael Waxman met his current girlfriend on a Grouper. Instead, the site doesn’t promise to… → Read More
Do you remember life before the Internet? Can you recall a time when meeting someone new took place serendipitously and was uncluttered with all the profile searching and stalking? A time when there was a little mystery in taking weeks or months to uncover the contents of a new friend’s music collection?
A time where, when you did meet someone interesting, you didn’t have every bit of… → Read More
Even though it grew out of Facemash, Facebook has always been, by default, a dating site. With its portable social graph, an enormous user base and repository of images, and droves of social and interest data, it’s no surprise that so many dating startups have chosen to build on top of its platform. Each in some way leverages Facebook’s social graph/data to find you better matches.
Yet, even… → Read More
Until now, online and mobile video dating has mostly been about looking at video clips. Flikdate for iOS, however, is all about live video calls, making it feels more like a mix of Chatroulette and Match.com than the current crop of video dating services.
The Flikdate team gave me a demo of the service earlier this week and it turns out the app is about as easy to use as it gets. You simply… → Read More
Maybe even dating sites deserve to find a special someone at one point in their lives… it looks like Badoo, the UK-based dating site, has joined forces with rival Hot or Not.
The two have yet to issue a formal release of any kind, but Hotornot now boasts the same amount of registered users as Badoo (146 million+), and Hotornot now directly refers users to Badoo’s terms and conditions… → Read More
Finally, a dating site where you can find someone to actually date, not just sleep with. New dating app Yoke matches you with single friends of friends you’re truly compatible with but who don’t even need to be Yoke users. Yoke does this by comparing you and their Facebook Likes and listening activity with datasets from Amazon, Netflix, Echo Nest, and a proprietary college graph. That lets… → Read More
How do you meet new people in today’s digital age, without over-exposing yourself the creeps, trolls and spammers? The answer, perhaps, is build a social service on top of Facebook, leveraging your network, your friends of friends and shared interests to form connections with people you don’t know. That’s what the new startup Speeksy is doing. The service is virtualizing the experience of going… → Read More
Imagine a candlelit dinner, a private art gallery tour, and round-trip black car service for you and your significant other. Now imagine how nice it’d be if you didn’t have to plan any of that awesome date. BeCouply is a new subscription service for couples where each month they get a unique, all-inclusive date set up for them. It’s like ShoeDazzle for romantic experiences. With pre-seed funding… → Read More
[France] Paris based dating service Smartdate has raised €1.7 million with European VC 360 Capital Partners.
Smartdate, which previously secured Angel investment from four international Business Angels for a total of €300,000, was founded by Fabrice Le Parc, who also launched be2.com in France and Benelux in 2006-07. This €2 million total amount of seed funding (one of the largest in France… → Read More
Well, hello there. It’s that time of week again, you know you’ve been anxiously awaiting my column. Patience is a virtue, my nerdy friends, and what could be a better reward than my timely return? This week I have a couple pop culture items to bring to your attention in an effort to upgrade your collective interesting-ness quotient for whatever girl might be striking your fancy. A… → Read More
Actually, you might want both. One to see how thick your beer goggles are and/or whether you should take a taxi, and then if that test goes okay, time to check your breath will be a deal-breaker. What you really need is a gadget that’s a breathalyzer on one side, a halitosis detector on the other, and then a pez/altoid dispenser on the bottom. Man, I’m a freaking genius. Halitosis… → Read More
Here’s the problem with blogging: you feel you can say anything but you’re still a nerd at heart so you get some kind of weird nerd confidence and come off as just a freak. Take this video, for example. Speeddate.com and Meebo got together to offer blogger speed dating and the results are horrifying. via TC → Read More
Surely you’ve heard of Match.com, what with its stupid commercials on TV at all hours of the day. And surely you own a video game console, be it the PS3, 360 or Wii. Putting the two together, what does Match.com tell prospective ladies about your owning a video game console, since, according two Nielsen, two-thirds of all guys between 18-34 play video games? If you own a PS3, says one… → Read More
Are you familiar with Twitter? That “short blogging” site where people post blurbs about random stuff rather than just calling their friends about what a great time their having? OK, good. A company named MeetMoi is looking to turn the Twitter-idea into a dating platform. The company just raised $1.5 million in financing and aims to change the way people date. → Read More
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