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Comment by thisjustcamein | Hacker News Reader

I'm pretty familiar with the online dating industry both through business and my own personal involvement. While I agree with the issues that you raise (POF, for instance, has 6.6 guys per girls the last time I checked 6 years ago), I don't see how a new business model will really address this. Attractive women are being wooed all the time and that's not going to change.

I think an online speed dating service for business professionals, however, would do well. I believe that there are services like this out there but none of them have achieved a true following I would argue.

Imagine logging onto a site where with use of full audio and video you meet 10 eligible bachelors or bachelorettes over the course of 30 mins.

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You could limit who can contact each user based on the requirement of filling out a "dating checklist" this means that women won't get inundated with messages and will actually respond to those who fit her requirements.

Hey, there's your startup...video speed dating! lol

But people already have access to these filters - I've already seen them on POF, for instance.

eHarmony is on the other extreme end where their checklist is 250 questions and the process is very tightly controlled!

Speaking of speed dating, I did actually give this a shout a few years ago but couldn't get it off the ground. Important lesson: don't go into business with friends unless you have absolutely complementary skills.

POF doesn't make it a requirement, probably because it would create friction in the signup process. eHarmony on the other hand, that's too many questions and no one is going to fill that damn thing out.

It can be done gradually:

Let people sign up without filling in much to just browse. But at each and every step, show them some possible candidates that will be unavailable to them unless they fill in a bit more information.

"This pretty woman? She won't let you message her unless you fill in your birth date and it matches her preferred age range. Guy over here? Cares deeply about your music taste".

It's no different from how a lot of these services will suddenly hit you with paywalls to do various things. Get you fired up about contacting someone first, and then demand just a bit more.

OKCupid does this to some degree - you need to fill in basic info, but it nags you to complete your profile as you message more people.

Out of all the online dating sites I've seen/used I think they are the best by far.

>>"Hey, there's your startup...video speed dating! lol"<<

It would be like that South Park episode. Naked guy, naked guy, naked guy ...

Part of the problem is that people are horrible at defining who they'll actually fall for.

Several of my past partners have been people who would have ruled me out for various reasons, including "big" ones like race and age that would be high up on the list of first things people would expect to filter by.

So while they' reduce the pool of messages, chances are good they'd also rule out the wrong people.

>Attractive women are being wooed all the time and that's not going to change.

Right. High-status men and very attractive women get a lot of attention, and everyone else is often vying for the attention of those two groups.

The other "problem" with online dating mirrors regular dating: different people have different priorities. Some want relationships, some want hookups, some don't know, and many if not most conceal their "true" intentions. Having dating online before, I've seen the whole gamut.

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