The company I founded, Eight at Eight Dinner Club, provides the perfect alternative venue for traditional daters. It is an unconventional approach but it works because it gets you off the internet and in front of like-minded singles. We’ve had over 100 marriages and Eight at Eight is the most efficient and unique concept in the off-line dating world. Just recently we were named the #1 way to meet new people by OK Magazine.

We operate in 6 major markets in the U.S. I pick our locations based on where the best and brightest singles in the region flock after college. NYC, Chicago, Washington DC, Atlanta, Dallas, and Denver.

Eight at Eight is not franchised and we organize thousands of dinner parties per year. Our clients tell us that they enjoy our service because it beats the drudgery of on-line dating and it is more sophisticated (and safer) than the bar scene.

There really isn’t competition in this arena in the US. Everyone else seems to come and go because the concept looks easy to operate but it isn’t! Eight at Eight has been in business 9 years due to our investment in infrastructure, and a knack for getting free PR. We are growing daily – over 100 leads per week and that is thanks to appearing on Oprah, the WSJ, Playboy, and various other venues.

Alternatively read this..

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/entrepreneurs_credit_crisis.php

The 8 at 8 and lunchtime dating services do ok, they end up feeling like long speed dates IMHO.

I bet you will see that the majority of singles connect within 100 miles of each other.

What does “local” exactly mean?
Pertaining to a city, town, or small district rather than an entire state or country?

Is Online Dating “local” or “local” is only illusory?

* Why do many online dating sites have to deal with scammers, predators and other fauna? They have to protect their members from scammers, predators and other fauna.

* You can check from eHarmony’s marriages archives the percentage of the spouses who are from the same city and also the percentage of the spouses who are from the same state.

* You can check from eHarmony, PerfectMatch, True, Chemistry and others sites the percentage of online daters who could consider moving to another city/state if they think they have found his/her right match living in that other city/state.

* Just now there are more than 900 Online Dating sites at the United States and Canada, but top 10 sites have 90% of actual market. If you add net paid subscribers of all United States and Canada Dating sites, perhaps the total is less than 5 million!!! What dating sites are doing / will do to court the other U.S. 90 million singles not seriously dating online?
If dating were really local, there is nothing to do, because those U.S. 90 million singles will use bars, parties, colleges, squares, live events, supermarkets (like Walt Mart) and other local zones for dating purposes.

If dating were really local, Off Line Chains, proposals like eight at eight, table for six, it’s just lunch and others like them would have been dominating the market, but the truth is ….
local proposals are only minority reports.

By the way, what happened with PlentyOfFish live events?
Remember last July 22nd 2006 PlentyofFish Speed Dating Record Attempt a Success

Kindest Regards,

Fernando Ardenghi.
Buenos Aires.
Argentina.
ardenghifer@gmail.com

* Founders
* Friends, Family, and Fools
* Angels
* VC

Also getting funding has NEVER been easy, especially for those who have not gone through the process before.

So is that 12 paid or 12 registrations? And what was the conversion on that?

I think the comment you’ve highlighted by Markus is obvious, but sometimes the masses miss the obvious. Dating by practice is local, are you going to go to a singles event geared towards finding a relationship in Seattle, WA when you live in Brooklyn, NY? You don’t care about the global dating scene, you care about the local dating scene.

One of my thoughts on building an online dating brand is to look at it as building a local business. You need to focus on building your initial user base in a regionally focused area.

We’ve been experimenting with some new ways of reaching a local market and it’s been working out effectively. I’d challenge that while you do have to compete with the big boys, entrepreneurs in the space can earn a lot by focusing on what’s relative to them regionally and focus on directly targeting a more personal user base.