First Rounds On Me: A New Dating App That Promotes Real-Life Connections
Fun new dating app. Anyone tried it? Message me back if so. I’m intrigued. First Rounds On Me – cute name. I imagine that the two who show up for the date will fight over who GETS to pay for those drinks. That would be a nice change of pace, huh? The whole Who Pays For The Date question is always tricky. I say, come prepared to pay for the date, regardless of what body parts you have. Choose dates that are reasonable and manageable for you to pay for, in case the other person doesn’t grab the check, or if you’d sincerely like to cover the tab. Why would a woman offer to cover the tab for a date? Maybe the guy drove across Los Angeles traffic to meet her and it took him 90 minutes. That’s worth a gracious “I’ve got it – I hope you’ll let me pick up the tab, as I so appreciate the effort you took in meeting me in my neighborhood. Thank you!”
The Dilemma of Who Pays for the Date
Back to the topic. The Los Angeles Business Journal published an article about FROME, and I was happy that one of my matchmaking clients saw the article and forwarded it to me – thank you Barbara!
Who’s Barbara? She’s in the South Bay and she’s magnificent. If you want to meet her, well… you need to be in my date-a-base (!) so I can find you and represent you, so I can be your advocate to pitch you to her. She might say Yes, or she might say no. Such pressure, I know! If you’re not yet privately registered with me, with Los Angeles’ legendary matchmaker, who’s personally registered over 39,000 single men and women RIGHT here in Los Angeles, then goodness gracious, click here to get IN with me.
Now, enough about me and my beautiful personal matchmaking community. HA. Here’s the story about the new app I thought you might want to know about.
FROME: Bringing Back Real Dating
The idea? If you’re interested in having a real, live date with a candidate or a suitor, rather than playing dodge ball with texts that may or may not be seen or retrieved or responded to, with a “person” who may or may not be a friggin’ ROBOT – what to do instead? Cut to the chase, set the date and actually MEET EACH OTHER quickly. Like … within 24 hours or poof…. Opportunity missed.
I love this new dating app concept. It cuts out the single men and single women who aren’t even really dating, they’re just kind of messing around online, poking around, watching and judging from the sidelines, getting nowhere in their love lives but polluting the waters with their lack of sincerity.
It’s like these guys behind First Drink’s On Me decided to force would-be daters to S*** or get off the pot.
Launched in Los Angeles – how sweet, my personal matchmaking agency is also based in … Los Angeles ( my secondary matchmaking hub is in Santa Fe, New Mexico (cuz Santa Fe is a magical place with remarkable, out-of-the-ordinary people.)
“Bringing Back Real Dating” is their tag line. How about we do that. Make it easy, simple and streamlined, the process of determining who might be a viable candidate for dating, relationship, partnership, life-long love, marriage, or maybe friendship – a new friend to go out and DO things with. Someone to message with an invitation to join you for the music festival you found out about. Someone to meet up with at the new Thai restaurant that opened around the corner.
Local Connections and Real Dates in Los Angeles
Another reason why I like the FirstRoundsOnMe dating app is – it’s good for local connections. Since you HAVE to meet up live, in person for a date within one day, within 24 hours, it encourages neighborhood dating. Especially in the big, huge city of LA, this makes a lot of sense.
Case in point. I’m working on two introductions that I’m orchestrating for my new matchmaking client, a great guy who’s big time successful, super desirable, handsome, communicative, growth-oriented – ALL the good stuff. This high caliber, high value single gentleman has it all. And he can live anywhere, so I’m providing personal introductions for him in Los Angeles, in Santa Fe, NM and also in the Midwest, where his company is based.
What’s the problem, in setting up two personal matchmaking dates for this studly stallion? You guessed it. LA traffic. It’s a beast, especially on a Friday eve, a Saturday eve, or even for a daytime beach walk date. It’s hard to be a gentleman in Los Angeles. If a guy REALLY wants to be gentlemanly, he offers to meet her in HER neck of the woods. That’s tough for a good guy to do.
The two candidates I have lined up for him, one is in West Hollywood and the other near Pasadena. He’s in Santa Monica. Nightmare traffic to contend with, and often I choose a mid-point, so the drive for both is less of a bear, but … no one wins, as the drive must be done, by both, and each shows up a bit haggard and stressed out from the adventure that it is driving to meet up for a first date.
Better? Meeting people who are close by, maybe even… dare I say it? Maybe your date you’re meeting with over drinks or coffee, the person who’ll fight you to pick up the tab, might be within… walking distance. Imagine THAT in Los Angeles, walking to a date, like they do in places like New York or Paris.
Matchmaking and the Importance of Personal Connections
Call me a hopeless romantic, but I want these guys at FROME to succeed. Have you been paying attention? Online dating has lost its charm. Ask anyone who’s been doing it. They all roll their eyes, they all complain. When’s the last time I did a personal matchmaking consultation and heard from the person I’m interviewing that they love online dating? If I had a hundred-dollar bill for every time I heard that online dating ROCKS, I’d be … broke indeed. People simply hate dating online.
So, good for these guys. The folks behind FROME – I just messaged you guys on your Linked-in profile – did you get it? Let’s meet for drinks, within 24 hours. HA! I don’t know your names yet, but I will, and soon. Because I want you to succeed.
Why I Endorse the FirstRoundsOnMe App
Do you think I’m nuts? Why would a world class matchmaker endorse an online dating app? Because, silly, this matchmaker has been in this chair since 1990. That’s a whole lot of matches, hugs, kisses, nighttime frolic, relationships, Club Med vacations, marriages, babies and yes, some divorces too, but hey, they’re uncommon.
Why do I like this new dating app? Isn’t it “competition” for me? Nope. Complimentary colleagues, I say. Those who know me will tell you that I’m not in this dating game for the money. If a matchmaker is good at what she does (professional matchmakers are not all women, but mostly we’re women) then the money always follows. Money follows good service, is my experience.
Like, this weekend, I get to officiate a wedding. Yep, I got me one of them there certificates that says I can officially marry people. And this is the part that makes some of my big-league professional matchmaking colleagues uncomfortable – neither he nor she is my matchmaking client. Neither has invested $10,000 or more to hire me. I made the introduction because I was inspired to introduce them properly. They’d both attended one of my Conversational Quickies dinner parties, back in October of 2022. They didn’t have to pay for that either. What’s wrong with me, that I give so much to my people for free? Stick with me here, I’ll explain why.
A Matchmaker’s Mission: Connecting People for Love
Back in the day, I worked for my husband’s company. Remember Great Expectations? If you’re young, you don’t, as it’s a now-antiquated dating company. Video dating. Nothing could happen at all until you paid big dough, both of you. Only Members could access the date-a-base. How much did it cost? $2995. Oh, but not really, as on your “first visit” they’d discount it to $2495. Unless you balked and got up out of your chair in that tiny little sales room to head for the door. In which case for you, today, special deal, it’s just $1995. For me, it was $1450 – that’s still a magical number for this formerly single girl. That’s how much Great Expectations “got me for” – and I thought I was getting a deal, until later I discovered that the guy I met there, who would become my husband for 30+ years – he got a deal too. He bought his Great Expectations Video Dating Service membership for just $795. It took these sales pros three shots at Gil Ferman before he’d shell out the dough to join as a member. That RAT! And I brought my own diamond to the wedding too. I must have been very, very desperate – no, I mean motivated, to find my partner. And I was.
The clients who know me the best are my Boot Camp Clients. They tell me everything and I tell them everything. We’re in the petri dish together, the sandbox that is today’s dating arena. They know that I don’t care HOW you guys meet each other out there in this wild, crazy dating culture. I believe in love, in the power of love, shared between people, created between people and sustained and grown over time.
If love sparks at the dry cleaners, because two people had the courage to hold eye contact, smile, say Hi, have a chat and then one of them had the guts to say, “you’re a breath of fresh air, let’s have coffee together this weekend” – that’s a WIN for love. If the connection is made through this cool new dating app? That’s a WIN for love. If the introduction was a professional one, that cost one or both of them a whopper fee, that’s a WIN too.
Drop me a message, to let me know how you are meeting good, solid, viable candidates for dating. I love to know. And if you’re a grower, curious by nature, stick with me, let’s study together. https://julieferman.com/transforming-dating-on-purpose/
