I live next door to a federal judge and she gave me her business card recently, saying I looked like the kind of guy who might need a get out of jail free card someday. I love her. Where was she when I was in my 20’s?
I just got off the phone with Wendy Freedman, founder of the Dolce Network. Wendy unwrapped the first site in the network, Lawdate, this morning. Despite the name, Lawdate has a social component, targeting non-lawyers as well.
Wendy identified a trend towards smaller social dating sites and how people are looking to refine their online searching to lifecycle niches. The Dolce Network is the result. What’s interesting is that Dolce will grow into a network of professional services sites. The next site to launch will focus on the medical profession, TheDrDate.com, followed by CapitolHillDate.com and EntertainmentIndustryDate.com. Think of it as Spark Networks for busy professionals.
Years ago I worked with the now defunct Lawyers in Love. I’ve always wondered when someone would develop a new network like this. Glad to see someone taking on the challenge. Note, the religious and sexual-orientation niche market is over-saturated, best to look elsewhere when thinking about creating networks of related sites.
I asked Wendy about lawyers personality traits and she told me that in general, practice specialties (IP, criminal, etc.) reflect personalities. This will be reflected in how the matching system on the site operates.
Monthly face to face meetups will begin in major metros in the near future. All she really has to do it get publicity in the major legal newsletters and magazines and digital forums, marketing costs are going to be negligible as opposed to a general-purpose dating site.
For now, the site design is pretty basic, like a default Boonex Dolphin or SkaDate install. The site is built on open source software modified to serve this particular group. That seems ok, I don’t think lawyers are screaming for lots of bells and whistles.
Creating a profile is free, but doing just about anything on the site requires a subscription. Subscriptions are offered in durations of varying length between one and six months. One month is offered free with the purchase of three and six month subscriptions. Subscriptions begin at $19.99 for the first month.
I’m BostonLegal on the site, if you like large yellow legal pads, look me up.
