Job searching and looking for love can be similarly painful. There’s the fear of rejection, the lack of useful feedback, and the constant pressure to make something happen from family and friends. While there’s no holiday that makes being unemployed feel like being alone on Valentine’s Day, there are plenty of day to day reminders that you need to get a job (hopefully these e-mails are a positive reminder). I think that one of the reasons that people struggle to find both love and jobs is that they try to do it alone. What if you had a few friends to help you along the way? That’s what Grouper is proposing. They’re a New York, NY based dating startup/social club “that sets up drinks between 2 groups of friends.” They don’t even use the word “dating” on their homepage, and I think that’s a brilliant branding decision–it’s all about meeting new people. I’m especially fond of Grouper because they’re running with the fish theme.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
administrative,
analytics,
communications,
community management,
copywriting,
customer service,
data,
dating,
design,
engineering,
holiday,
international,
Internships,
marketing,
mobile,
online marketing,
product development,
public relations,
sales,
social media,
social networking,
software development,
user experience,
web development
I’ve been off the market for almost 7 1/2 years, so I have no experience with online dating. But I do have a lot of friends who use the web to find dates, and I even have a few who are working on projects in the space. One of the sites I’ve been hearing a lot about lately is HowAboutWe, which is based in New York, NY. It’s a site that is more about getting people out on dates than finding them a perfect match. They don’t want you obsessing over profiles, sending lots of messages, and spending some of your best years in front of a computer screen. They want you to get out and do stuff with people who might end up being people you want to spend more time with.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
business development,
customer service,
dating,
design,
editorial,
graphic design,
interactive media,
Internships,
marketing,
media planner,
mobile,
New York,
online marketing,
production,
software development,
unpaid,
web development
When I see my friends from Jelly Chicago (a co-working group), we often bounce ridiculous startup ideas off of each other. For some reason, many are centered around online dating. It’s a really fun space to think about because there’s a simple problem with limitless solutions–just look at all of the different dating sites out there. Most of them require your searching through profiles and contacting people (or waiting to be contacted). Others propose matches based on fancy algorithms. MeetMoi is a mobile dating company that uses push technology to help you meet new people, and it’s all based on where you are right now. MeetMoi is located in New York, NY, but you can use it anywhere (well anywhere that they have a critical mass of users). Basically, all you have to do is fill out a profile and get out of the house. MeetMoi will find people with similar interests and push messages to your phone when you’re near each other. You can initiate a chat and decide to meet immediately, another time or not at all. It’s a little creepy, but people said that about online dating not so long ago.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
community management,
dating,
Internships,
marketing,
New York,
online marketing,
product management
Though I’ve never had the opportunity to try an online dating site, I do have some interest in the industry. First, I think that online dating and online job search have a lot in common. Second, a lot of online marketing innovation comes out of the online dating industry. Third, I have a good friend who has a side project in the online dating space, and I enjoy learning from him and helping him build the business. I guess that’s why I’d heard of Zoosk before. Or maybe it’s those commercials with a bunch of really good-looking people huddled around a computer having fun on a dating site. Either way, I didn’t really bother to take a closer look at San Francisco, CA based Zoosk until I got an e-mail from a reader who recently landed a job there. Now I realize that Zoosk has kind of come out of nowhere to be a massive force in online dating. They have millions of users (they’re apparently bigger than Match.com) and a revenue run rate that was pushing towards $100 million annually back in February.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
California,
customer service,
dating,
Internships,
marketing,
mobile,
online marketing,
operations,
production,
social media,
social networking,
video,
web development
I probably should have done this post last week in the days leading up to Valentine’s Day, but I still think it’s worth talking about New York City based OkCupid today. They’re a free online dating site that matches people based on what they say they find important. Since I’m not looking, I don’t usually come across dating sites in my daily Internet travels, but OkCupid keeps popping up. Most of the time it’s because of their brilliant blog called OkTrends. It has some amazing posts that analyze the data generated by OkCupid’s users. Previous articles have covered topics like profile pictures and how race affects online dating outcomes. It’s really impressive and interesting stuff. OkCupid is actually run by a company called Humor Rainbow, but that website redirects to OkCupid.com, so it’s clear where their priorities are.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
blogging,
business development,
dating,
Internships,
marketing,
New York,
research,
software development,
web development,
writing
Online dating has come a long way – from picking people up in chat rooms to having a computer find your perfect match. Considering the reaction that many people still give when you talk about online dating, it has a long way to go yet. New York City’s Ignighter might be responsible for the next big step forward. They provide a free online dating service… for groups. That means that they’ll match you and your boys with someone and her girls and vice versa or however else you want to do it. You can all go out together and see what happens. Instead of worrying about ending up on a date with a psycho killer, you have to worry about going on a date with a bunch of psycho killers – and even if that happens, you have some friends to back you up. What a relief! This idea might just be crazy enough to work.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
dating,
Internships,
New York,
paid,
software development,
web development,
writing
My first experience with video chatting was with CU-SeeMe in an internet cafe in the mid 90s. It was insanely cool, but it was also terrible quality. Things have come a long way, and once again people are using video chat to meet random people online. I was a little creeped out when I first saw WooMe, but I think that I get it now (even if I’m still creeped out). It’s a website that allows you to meet new people through “60 second one-on-one online video sessions.” Basically, it’s speed dating on the web. I was almost too sketched out to cover them here, but I figured if TechCrunch didn’t rip on them too hard and they’re able to get $17 million in investment, there has to be the potential for a real business.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
California,
dating,
international,
Internships,
marketing,
paid,
social media,
social networking,
software development,
united kingdom,
web development
