
Dating Site for Married Couples - revorad
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/10/us/10iht-letter10.html?_r=2
======
temphn
Skeptical at first, but then saw this:

    
    
      Each blockage HowAboutWe found among the committed couples 
      they studied has a corresponding feature on the new site. 
      To overcome the inertia it detected, the site will offer 
      fully packaged date ideas. To address logistical woes, 
      HowAboutWe is working to make the packages available with 
      a single click that will book your taxi, theater tickets 
      and corner table at the Italian trattoria.
    
      For Mr. Schechter and Mr. Schildkrout, each idea leads to 
      another. They could arrange babysitters for couples. They 
      could help slouchy husbands send, with one click, fancy 
      date invitations that suggest a labor of many clicks. They 
      could allow couples to follow the dates of other couples 
      they admire — a digital way to keep up with the Joneses.
    

One click dates + inexpensive/vetted babysitter would be an enormous recurring
revenue market.

~~~
yirt
The babysitter is the hard bit.

Since couples tend to collect a small number of sitters and stick with those -
frequently friend-of-friend's older children within social groups (church,
suburban neighborhood, etc.) - the most tractable approach is more likely to
be a calendaring and booking system for sitters vs. a "vetted employee"
paradigm.

~~~
count
Nanny Poppins could leverage this with an API for the approved/vetted sitters
that are available for that set of parents. That's actually a pretty neat
idea!

~~~
yirt
A big part of why I consider HN worthwhile to read and post to: we only have
time to even attempt executing on so many ideas, but maybe someone else is
working on it. Like a big "take an idea, leave an idea" jar.

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randliu
It took me until the 7th paragraph to realize this wasn't a competitor to
Ashley Madison.

The name of this article is really unfortunate and will probably mislead many
readers.

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_pius
My startup is already doing this (for all couples, not just married ones) and
our date subscription service is launched in SF:

<http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/03/becouply/>

<http://www.becouply.com>

<https://www.becouplydates.com/>

~~~
pbiggar
I read the article and thought "awesome", so if someone is already doing it,
great! But I clicked through to your site, and I've now closed it without
subscribing. Some feedback:

\- "Live like a power couple": worst feature ever. I struggle to see how this
could be a good feature, and offering this makes me believe you couldn't
possibly offer something I want

\- $199 a month, for 1 date. Well, one date a month is a bit crap, and $199 is
a lot to spend for it. A "nice dinner" date night comes to maybe $120
including taxis, and I could add another $25 to have Exec arrange it if I
needed to. (As a startup person, I realize your value is not limited to the
value of the date, but you've managed to present the product in a way that I
automatically equate "1 date == $199", so this may be a positioning problem)

\- I realize your dates are a bit cooler than most, but I want to spend time
with the wife, not talking to Chefs and stuff, and not being social with new
couples.

\- becouply.com is terrible. Becouplydates.com is a much better site, but why
are there both? Are you making many becouplys (and so not focussing on the
product I want)? Also, becouply.com says you arent launched, it has a twitter
feed that has zero relevance to the product ("come see us at #launch", "well
done on your acquisition") and has a different price ($149) to the
becouplydates.com.

~~~
_pius
Thanks for your feedback. Briefly:

 _A "nice dinner" date night comes to maybe $120 including taxis_

Regarding pricing and value, it turns out that different people have very
different ideas of what constitutes "a nice date" and that's perfectly OK.
Every date we send couples on includes drinks, a multi-course dinner, a fun
activity, and round trip black car. Our customers love the service and the
price point, but there are other types of dates out there too and we'll
probably add more of them.

 _[T]his may be a positioning problem_

We can always work on our copy, thanks for the feeback.

 _I want to spend time with the wife, not talking to Chefs and stuff, and not
being social with new couples_

Great point regarding what's important for your dates. Some dates have a group
component and some don't. All of our dates have some sort of exclusive
activity. Different couples have different preferences about this sort of
thing and, again, that's ok.

 _Are you making many becouplys (and so not focussing on the product I want)?_

Thanks for your feedback on the sites. We're integrating the two right now.

 _[it] has a different price ($149) to the becouplydates.com_

I'm not seeing the pricing typo you've mentioned, but I'd love to correct it.

 _[it] has a twitter feed that has zero relevance to the product_

It's just not the case that our Twitter account has "zero relevance" to the
product. We regularly send our Twitter followers on cool dates with their
partners. For example, we worked with Motley Crue to send a couple backstage
to their Valentine's Day performance at the Hard Rock in Vegas. It's a Twitter
account, so we use it to interact with people. It's not just a PR wire, so
yes, you'll see something other than our press releases on it at times. :)

~~~
pbiggar
I'm sure the twitter feed is relevant in general, but right now it shows
startupy things, not couply things. Filtering would help.

I looked for $149, and it was actually in the Techcrunch article. Not much you
can do about that. Though it might be better to order your links differently.

~~~
_pius
Ah, gotcha, thanks for the heads up. Please feel free to e-mail me at
pius@becouply.com if you have any other thoughts you'd like to share.

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ezl
Fascinating.

I thought this was going to be a site about couples dating couples, like how
Lily and Marshall in HIMYM were always trying to find married couples to hang
out with.

I suspect this is also an interesting idea to a lot of people and might look
very similar to Howaboutwe -- 1. couple dating ideas, 2. monetize by freeing
couples up with babysitting.

Howaboutwe is "keep your love life fresh"

Coupledating helps married couples find similar people to hang out with. The
site can help introduce couples (match.com), or keep feeding them ideas for
things that 4 people can do (Howbouatwe).

~~~
thejteam
I'd be interested to know how they solve the babysitting problem. I know there
is no way in the world I would ever allow a random person set up from a
company into my house and then leave them alone with my children. That is a
level of trust far beyond what I would have of any company. Now... if they
opened a "daycare" agency with a physical local you can take your kids to,
that might be a possibility.

~~~
rmc
Make it social! Tie it into Facebook or get list of friends who are couples.
"Your friends Bob & Jim used this babysitter, would you like us to contact
them?"

~~~
ezl
Does this exist? Seems like it should.

Sort of like how you can use linked in to figure out who people have worked
with.

People with kids often have friends with kids and you can figure out all the
babysitters that have one degree of separation from you.

------
skbohra123
Interesting! My last startup was actually about the exact same problem and we
had pretty much similar ideas and monetization plans. Unfortunately it didn't
work out well or we gave up pretty much soon. But I am glad that someone is
taking up this problem, hence confirming that what we were solving, actually
was a problem and facebook isn't the answer for anything related to social.

Good luck to the team.

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jbrun
We tried this about a year and a half ago, and it has been fairly popular:

<http://www.makeyourgirlfriendhappy.com>

The idea could be taken much further, lack of time on my part really. Feedback
welcome.

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troymc
I know a couple who uses Groupon in this way. They get to try a new restaurant
or experience, and they feel like they got a deal too!

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haliax
They're making marriage better by understanding and then changing the process
by which it evolves -- fantastic!

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wavephorm
For a second I figured it was going to be called SwingWithUs, a VC-backed site
where wife-swapping becomes fashionable.

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maeon3
I'm finding a problem with the idea that when a dating site is very
successful, they lose because the participants immediately become non
customers.

The same is true (kind of) with car salesman and real estate salesman, if they
are successful at selling the customer a car or house and they do a terrific
job, they won't see that same customer again for 8 to 30 years. However, if
the customer is delighted, word of mouth spreads, and you get a flood of the
customer's friends.

~~~
neilk
True, but people rarely brag that they met their partner online. Relatively
little word of mouth.

As for car sales -- this is a field _notorious_ for how salespeople con the
customer, probably for the reasons you specify. People pick the type of car
they want, and then endure the shenanigans at the dealers of that brand in
their area.

~~~
daeken
Obviously it's anecdotal, but a large portion of my friend circle have met
their partners online, and there's been a strong word of mouth component
there. For instance, I met my girlfriend on OkCupid, which she was only on
because a few of her friends had just found boyfriends/girlfriends on the site
and she figured she'd give it a shot.

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robwgibbons
Great idea. Interesting (and obvious in retrospect) note about the main flaw
in paid dating sites: the more successful you are, the faster you lose your
clients.

