Coffee meets bagel is online dating meets groupon wired


Coffee Meets Bagel Is Online Dating Meets Groupon
If you like your Bagel, you can set up a real-world date by clicking the "Like" button in the e-mail. If not, click the "Pass" button and move on to the next day's match. No one will know that you don't want to date your sister's boyfriend's co-worker (and especially the poor sap you rejected).
Coffee Meets Bagel Is Online Dating Meets Groupon
Online dating has come a long way from simple text-based Yahoo Personals, but we still can't seem to get away from the vaguely creepy strangers who lurk around most online dating sites. Coffee Meets Bagel figures, why not just leverage your Facebook friends to find you a non-threatening mate?
Photo: ggvic/ Flickr
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Online dating has come a long way from simple text-based Yahoo Personals, but we still can't seem to get away from the vaguely creepy strangers who lurk around most online dating sites. So rather than filling out lengthy online applications and trusting to the algorithm, Coffee Meets Bagel figures, why not just leverage your Facebook friends to find you a non-threatening mate? And since you need a place to have that awkward first meeting, here's a deal at local restaurants and cafes. It's Groupon meets Match.com, complete with the daily e-mails.
CMB currently serves singles in New York City and Boston (places that are known for decent bagels, not surprisingly), but it just raised $600,000 from Lightbank and Match.com co-founder Peng T. Ong to bring the service to San Francisco (known for its great coffee), its new company headquarters. It's a nice chunk of cash for a 5-month-old company with 50 percent month over month growth, 100,000 introductions, and 6,000 real-world connections.
To get started, you sign up with your Facebook account and give CMB your age, gender, religious and ethnicity preferences (if any) for your ideal date. CMB then scours your Facebook connections for a match and sends you one result, called a Bagel, every day at noon via e-mail. Your Bagel will almost always be a friend of a Facebook friend who has signed up for CMB. If you don't have many Facebook friends, you're not doomed to be single forever. "If we can't find a match in a friend of a friend, we'll use third-degree connections or find other [CMB] members that fit your criteria," says co-founder Arum Kang.
If you like your Bagel, you can set up a real-world date by clicking the "Like" button in the e-mail. If not, click the "Pass" button and move on to the next day's match. No one will know that you don't want to date your sister's boyfriend's co-worker (and especially the poor sap you rejected).
If the like is mutual, CMB will give you a private phone line for seven days to exchange texts, so you can set up a date without giving out your real number. When it's time to meet for a cup of coffee, or dinner and a movie, CMB gifts you a free appetizer, dessert, or cup of coffee at a nearby restaurant or cafe. It acts as a sweetener so you will actually go out and meet your date face-to-face in the real world. Like Groupon, it also gives you an incentive to dine at a participating restaurant. You get free food, and the business gets a new customer. So far it's been local cafes and wine bars in New York City giving out a free cheese plate or offering a latte when the pair walks in together. "We've gotten mixed reviews on the gifts, since most people already have a favorite cafe or restaurant they go to on a date," says Kang. "So we're still evaluating whether or not we'll continue with the program."
CMB is free to sign up and use, but the company charges for credits, called Coffee Beans, that unlock more information about your match. For instance, you can see your match's profile for free, but if you want to know who your mutual friends are, it will cost you 65 Coffee Beans, or 65 cents. If one day you passed on a Bagel and have a sudden change of heart, for 265 Coffee Beans (about $2.65) you can reconnect with them. You can buy Coffee Beans on the site in 100, 2,000, and 3,000 increments, but if you don't want to spend the money, you can earn them by filling out your CMB profile, inviting friends to use the service, or giving feedback on why you passed on a match.
You can already pick from far too many dating sites that use matching algorithms and in-depth personality profiles, so why bother with Coffee Meets Bagel? Well, if the cute name doesn't make you smile, maybe the simplicity of sharing free chocolate bonbons with a Facebook acquaintance you found through a daily e-mail will. And if it there isn't a love connection, at least you got the free dessert. Now if CMB can just raise the bagel bar in SF.