After over a year of beta testing and refining our product, we just relaunched our new site. Excited to be on ProductHunt and happy to answer any questions!
@laurenikay thanks for the discount!
what's the most common advice you give to people on their profiles? what are some tips / dating wisdom you can leave us? :)
@eriktorenberg So on our site, we don't have dreaded profiles, which are basically impossible to do well. We do allow members to show photos, and my biggest suggestion there is definitely include photos where you're with other people! I've seen so many profiles where people will blur out the faces of other people, or only include solo shots. Don't do that! You want to show that you have friends :)
In terms of dating advice, my favorite rule is the 60/40 rule. Most people aren't super exciting in person, and you generally don't have instant rom-com ready chemistry. If you're totalllly not into it, don't waste your time on a second date. But if you think there's a 60% chance you maybe eventually will really like the person - go again! People nowadays write each other off too quickly. And that stinks, because most people are presenting the worst version of themselves on a first date. First dates are hard. Go on seconds.
And for our first 10 Product Hunt signups, you'll get even more where that came from, as we're giving an hour of dating coaching and advice to the first 10 who sign up with code hunted20 :)
@laurenikay I love the idea. Love today (aka, finding the right partner), can be a complicated transaction for a lot of people. (I know we all like the idea of love as magical chemistry, and it happens all the time, but the reality is just different). Like all complicated transactions (raising Series A, buying an appartment, etc.) using a trusted third-party that is paid by the hour – not by the result – can be a game changer. I like that idea of offering "just that little help from your friend" that helps breaking the ice. It's like being invited to a diner where a friend has invited that "other friend" just for you ;)
I was just chatting with @carmeldea about dating apps like Tinder and Coffee Meets Bagel. I'm a fan of them but (and yes, this is going to sound like a first-world problem) it takes a lot of effort to find someone and then once you go on a date, there's probably a good chance they're not a great fit.
How do you determine what's a good match, @laurenikay?
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@rrhoover I think this (determining a good match) is the big one with paid services. The idea of curated matches is a great one - but if you pay $60/month for one match a week and they all end up being duds, it seems a bit wasteful.
@laurenikay - how does Dating Ring plan to refine match curation if users find themselves totally discontent with their matches?
@stttories Great question. We ask users for feedback on each match they receive, and each date they go on, and use this to improve future matches we send. So, if we see that someone isn't getting a lot of mutual matches, we're able to change the types of matches they're getting to improve their chance of connecting. We also give our users feedback to help them improve their chances.
Radio silence is one of the biggest complaints we hear from people about other dating services, and it's what we work our hardest to prevent. Because members are paying monthly and receiving a match along with a personal note about why that match was chosen, they're also much more likely to give that person a try and go on a date - unlike other applications where you're flooded with options, and it's easier just to ignore everyone.
I love the idea. Love today (aka, finding the right partner), can be a complicated transaction for a lot of people. (I know we all like the idea of love as magical chemistry, and it happens all the time, but the reality is just different). Like all complicated transactions (raising Series A, buying an appartment, etc.) using a trusted third-party that is paid by the hour – not by the result – can be a game changer. I like that idea of offering "just that little help from your friend" that helps breaking the ice. It's like being invited to a diner where a friend has invited that "other friend" just for you ;) Edit. Doubled this one. Can't delete?
@Virtualgoodz Thanks Simon, and you're spot on. Finding the right partner affects people's overall happiness, on average, more than anything else in their life. Unfortunately, many people sit and wait for 'fate' to bring them love. In reality, finding the right partner is much, much harder than finding the right job, or the right apartment. It takes a lot of searching and a lot of time. Hiring an expert third party can help to make the seemingly impossible a lot more possible.
And in the end, it's all worth it! We work with so many happy couples who are glad that they put in the extra effort.
Very interesting. This is the best paragraph on the whole website by the way:
"So, give us a try. Because what else are you going to do with that $20 bill? Make a sweet origami bow tie? Okay, that’s actually a pretty good use of your money..."
Best of luck with your company and if you ever expand over to good old Europe I'll most definitely re-purpose that origami bow tie I made out of the 20€ bill. ;)
@sleinadsanoj You just made my day Jonas. That was all Emma (any time you see something funny, that's her.) We had been pulling another all nighter and at the time, this seemed like a funny joke. We were hoping at least one person would agree.
Will definitely hit you up when we get overseas!
Exactly - I went on tons and tons of online dates and generally found that people were very different in person from how they seemed online. Over the past year, our matchmakers met thousands of our members in person and then set up dates, so that we could analyze what worked, when it came to matchmaker intuition, and what didn't. We learned that most things do not affect matching directly - you might loathe Taylor Swift and I might know every word to her first album, but we can still have awesome chemistry in person.
So, we have created technology behind the scenes that assists our matchmakers with traits that we know are important to matches (age, height, educational background, to name a few.) We also ask our members for a very specific lists of curated interests - everything from gluten-free to Reddit to crossfit - to get a good sense of how their lifestyles would fit together. And our matchmakers approve each match with a personal note about why the match was suggested.
Hope that helps to answer your question! Sorry for all of the words.
I just signed up. I just filled out my name and left all "looking for" questions blank.
but I got this message
"At this point, we do not have enough compatible members to match you with, so we are going to place you on our waiting list."
Maybe it's not available in downtown. Also I find it interesting you require my phone number as a must but not my "about me". Which is quite strange because where I work the greeting plays a huge role in discovery (along with photo of course).
What is the monthly cost? I can't seem to find pricing page. And also what is the value proposition here vs. other match making or typical dating sites.
@johnnyquachy Hey Johnny! We're not available in LA yet (which is I believe where you signed up), hence that message.
Info on how we match, our location, pricing and more can be found on our FAQ: https://datingring.zendesk.com/hc/ . We're live in NYC and SF, and charge $20/month for 1 match or $60/month for 4 matches. So, it's a similar price point to other dating sites (such as Match, where it looks like you work), but with a much more personal touch. Each match comes with a personal note from your matchmaker about why that match was chosen, and you're also able to give feedback on each match and date, to improve future matches, which you can't do on traditional dating sites. Traditional matchmaker provide a great service, but unfortunately at an average of 10k-20k/year, they're not accessible to the average user.
We require basic info that takes little thought to fill out up front (such as phone number). The other info isn't required for signup, but can instead be completed after subscribing, so that our matchmakers can get to know you better when sending out matches.
@laurenikay Great thanks for the info. Makes sense.
Follow up question: Most matching making services cost like you said 1-5k a month sometimes. How are you guys able to do it for 20/m? It seems quite polar? I'm sure there's things like low overheard, work from cloud, etc etc but at the end of the day match making services cost that much for a reason. So I'm quite surprised it can be done for less then 100 times the market cost?
@johnnyquachy A large part of the service matchmakers provide is personal coaching and feedback - it's sort of like a mix of therapy and matchmaking, and it requires a ton of time. We have partnered with some amazing matchmakers who we highly recommend to users, generally those looking to learn more about themselves and who are looking to get married at some point in the near future. Additionally matchmakers do all of the work of arranging dates, calling venues, etc. (We work with a select number of Premium Clients and provide this service for $350 - $500/month.)
For $20, you're assigned a personal matchmaker who will review your information and suggest a match (along with a personalized note) that you should meet. We have technology on the backend that helps our matchmakers do their job more efficiently. Since we are working with such a large user-base, we're able to create tons of compatible matches each week. And because users set up dates themselves, we're able to spend all of our time matching.
@laurenikay I see. So the service sends you the matches you do the in actual asking a person out yourself vs. other matchmaking companies where the whole processes is planned. Even 500/month seems much more affordable. Awesome good luck with everything.
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