Month: March 2016

Smell Dating Uses Dirty T-Shirts For Matchmaking

Posted on March 24, 2016

Smelldating logoREUTERS – Mar 24 – Smell Dating is a New York matchmaking service that promises to help single people sniff out their perfect match by breathing in the odors from dirty T-shirts. The idea is based on the science of pheromones. The founders describe it as an art project. Each of its first 100 clients received a T-shirt to wear for three days straight without bathing. The clients then mailed the T-shirts back to be cut into swatches. Smell Dating then sent batches of 10 mixed swatches back to the clients to sniff.

by Barbara Goldberg & Angela Moore
See full article at Reuters

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How Online Dating Works Better Than Offline Dating

Posted on March 24, 2016

Onlinedating11WASHINGTON POST – Mar 23 – "The fear that online dating is creating unhealthy habits is being driven more by paranoia than by actual facts, according to Michael Rosenfeld, a sociologist at Stanford who has been conducting a long-running study of online dating. "I don't see in my data any negative repercussions for people who meet partners online. People who meet their partners online are not more likely to break up", he says. Once you're in a relationship with somebody, it doesn't really matter how you met. There's always a fear that comes with a new technology. One of the things he has found out is that people who meet online progress to marriage faster than people who meet offline. Because people can be more selective and there tends to be extensive communication before the first date.

by Roberto A. Ferdman
See full article at Washington Post

Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team

Female Friendly Dating App Siren Raised $500K

Posted on March 23, 2016

Siren dating app iconGEEKWIRE – Mar 22 – Siren, the dating app that lets women make the first move, has raised $500K of a planned $750,000 seed round. The dating app, which won App of the Year at last year's GeekWire Awards, will use the money to further develop their platform and user base. Currently, the app has ~20K users.

by Madeline Vuong
See full article at Geekwire

See all posts on Siren

This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.

Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team

Comment Policy

Posted on March 23, 2016

CommentsOPW – Mar 23 – This is a forum for open and fair discussion but this is also a forum for professionals. It's important that someone's reputation stand behind each comment. Please include your name and contact email when posting a comment. If you choose to be anonymous and a company complains specifically about your comment because it is anonymous and derogatory, we will be inclined to remove it.

Post by Mark Brooks @ Courtland Brooks.

DAN Fund Raises $2.5M, Invests 650K In ThreeDayRule

Posted on March 23, 2016

Threedayrule logoD MAGAZINE – Mar 23 – The DAN Fund's third fund has raised $2.5M and already invested $650K in its first portfolio company – Three Day Rule. Three Day Rule is a LA matchmaking company backed by IAC (It serves as the exclusive provider of personalized matchmaking services to The Match Group). The DAN Fund was the lead investor in Three Day Rule's Series A round of $1.2M in 2014.

by Danielle Abril
See full article at D Magazine

See all posts on Three Day Rule

This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.

Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team

Tinder Announces Management Changes

Posted on March 22, 2016

Tinder logosVANITYFAIR – Mar 23 – Four new, experienced executives are joining Tinder: Maria Zhang, most recently of Yahoo, is becoming Tinder's VP of engineering; YouTube and Google's Derek Callow will take on the role of VP of international; James Kim of TigerText will be VP of finance; and former Starz Entertainment executive Ferrell McDonald will be the company's new CMO.

by Maya Kosoff
See full article at Vanity Fair

See all posts on Tinder

Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team

Single Mother Raised $2M For Her New Company From WhatsYourPrice.com Sugar Daddy

Posted on March 22, 2016

Whatsyourprice logo march 2016DAILYMAIL.CO.UK – Mar 23 – Samantha DeFazio joined the controversial dating site WhatsYourPrice.com in 2014. The site allows men to bid on attractive women to go on a date with them. Samantha, who has been paid up to $600 for an evening out, pitched her idea for a luxury taxi service driven by attractive women to her dates. She has received $2M from one of her suitors who was inspired to invest in her app.

See full article at DailyMail.co.uk

See all posts on WhatsYourPrice.com

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Dating App Bumble Offers Political Filters

Posted on March 22, 2016

Bumble political filersDAILYTIMES – Mar 21 – Bumble, the dating app where ladies make the move by messaging matches first, is now offering political filters so users can see who someone is voting for before they swipe right or left.

The full article was originally published at Daily Times, but is no longer available.

See all posts on Bumble

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Most Popular Words Used In Online Dating Profiles

Posted on March 21, 2016

Map-1-793x526WIDEOPENCOUNTRY – Mar 21 – Mashable partnered with Match.com to analyze thousands of its dating profiles, and create a map of the US that shows each state labeled with the term most commonly found in online dating profiles.

by Lorie Liebig
See full article at WideOpenCountry

See all posts on Match.com

Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team

China Is The Biggest Gay Dating Market

Posted on March 18, 2016

Blued app screenshotsADVOCATE – Mar 18 – Earlier this year, the Beijing Kunlun Tech Company bought a majority stake in Grindr. Recently, China banned all TV programming depicting gay and lesbian couples. Yet the Chinese business was "excited" to invest $93M in the app. The world's most popular same-sex matchmaking app is Chinese Blued. Blued alone has ~15M users. "People in China are less open about homosexuality, but the beautiful thing about the smartphone is that it's a private device," said Blued investor David Chao.

by Daniel Reynolds
See full article at Advocate

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Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team