laurenkay

7 ms·

1. 1.▲
   by laurenkay 4y ago

   All while having a newborn and being a fantastic dad :)
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   Why we decided to expose all of our failures to 400k listeners(advice.datingring.com)

   11 points by laurenkay 11y ago|1 comments
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   by laurenkay 12y ago

   Thanks for unkilling, but it's pretty ironic that a piece about Silicon Valley being a boys' club was flag-killed. With HN's prominence in SV, I really wish this were a progressive enough community to at least acknowledge the
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   Dating Ring Is Hiring a New Matchmaker(datingring.com)

   1 points by laurenkay 12y ago
5. 5.▲
   by laurenkay 12y ago

   Great tip! And that's awesome that you took a class. Often, people think that flirting and dating are things you can't learn, but it's the opposite. Learning to be a great dater takes a lot of practice. And sorry we’re not in
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   HN, let's get you on some dates(advice.datingring.com)

   4 points by laurenkay 12y ago|5 comments
7. 7.▲
   by laurenkay 12y ago

   We added that to staging based on a previous comment, and the change will be live by tomorrow. And getting signups in other cities doesn't help our stats or conversion rates (it actually lowers them). We have it available since we plan
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   by laurenkay 12y ago

   Nothing about that campaign itself was sexist. But mix women and dating, and you get a ton of outcry from the media that the women are prostitutes. As a feminist company, that wasn't fun for us to be associated with, but there was litt
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   by laurenkay 12y ago

   We have 5 full-time matchmakers with varied backgrounds, mostly in psychology, theater, and working at other matchmaking agencies. We often get questioned more on what makes our matchmakers good, than another company would get questioned on
10. 10.▲
    by laurenkay 12y ago

    @genericuser A big value add to what we do is that we will offer advice to people who keep getting rejected. If it's that their expectations are too high, we have it on our list to guide some people toward Premium. Not so we can make m
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    by laurenkay 12y ago

    Ah, yes, we have been doing this since we launched. The $20/month gets you access to free, exclusive Dating Ring parties (lotsss of people find dates through those) as well as that one match a month. We should definitely surface that b
12. 12.▲
    by laurenkay 12y ago

    Of course. HN has been super helpful today and I'll definitely be working on providing a better explanation - and making other changes people have suggested as well.
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    by laurenkay 12y ago

    Thanks, this is a great comment. Moving signin with Facebook way up on our list. And you're definitely right that it's the principle, and we should think about that more. I like the idea of giving something, and not paying $20 for
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    by laurenkay 12y ago

    If we did that, we'd have to charge $100/match. That's why we have Premium - it's a higher price point for a guaranteed date. But in order to personally match people and provide great customer service, you can't gua
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    by laurenkay 12y ago

    We do also have you fill out a profile, and you're able to share any info you want with your matchmaker. You can also update them after each match. If you really want to spend hours and do a more in depth search, that's what Premi
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    by laurenkay 12y ago

    @Minimaxr - Calling us a direct competitor is a HUGE compliment. Thank you! I've talked to people at OkC and they could care less about us now. We're peanuts compared to them. Also, they have really good spam filters etc, so they
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    by laurenkay 12y ago

    Nicest comment ever. Marry me?
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    by laurenkay 12y ago

    @rogerbinns - The problem with being paid on success is that people are really bad at understanding the value behind 'success' and also, it's very hard to verify. Working backwards, it's easy to convince someone that fin
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    by laurenkay 12y ago

    Also, to clarify, while I did personally message a ton of people during our early days (CEO in her pajamas at 3am doing anything to get a site off the ground) - this is not at all what we do now. Our Premium Matchmakers will contact someone
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    by laurenkay 12y ago

    Our employees don't have fake profiles on OkCupid, although the Premium Matchmakers do occasionally use their real profiles if they find someone that is exceptionally good for one of their clients. This is a pretty common practice over
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    by laurenkay 12y ago

    Ah, correct. I meant to say also that we used to send people on dates for $20, and the few times people had bad times, they said they would have rather paid $20 not to go. So it's better to spend $20 and not waste time, than it is to s
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    by laurenkay 12y ago

    Thanks Meerko, right on point. The more people using your service, the less work for each matchmaker. Most premium matchmakers spend most of their time recruiting. We don't need to do that since we have so many users. We also have a lo
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    by laurenkay 12y ago

    Thanks for the replies, all. Re: restaurants - maybe not the best analogy. But just like a restaurant, we don't openly advertise it, but when people complain, we're always more than generous with credits / refunds. I'm w
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    by laurenkay 12y ago

    Thanks - I definitely need to update our blog since we made so many major changes. (We've explained in our newsletters but I should make those public.) Here is our newsletter explaining the changes: http://us4.campaign-archi
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    by laurenkay 12y ago

    Sorry about that - great suggestion. Will add that to the form. shkkmo is right that the reason we have you fill it out is so that we have the ability to launch new cities faster.
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    by laurenkay 12y ago

    Thanks for this feedback - very helpful. 1) It's now on our list to add signin without Facebook, since that's been such a popular request. 2) The problem there is that if you don't like your second match, then what? What&#x27
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    by laurenkay 12y ago

    Have a page about our matchmakers that we'll be adding back this week, and you also get more info about your matchmaker after signing up. You're completely right that we should have more info on the matchmakers featured prominentl
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    by laurenkay 12y ago

    Are you in SF or NYC? Those are the two cities we're live in. Will be launching LA / Boston next. If you are NYC or SF and are on the waitlist, we're able to get most people off within a week. Email me - lauren@datingring.com
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    by laurenkay 12y ago

    Predicting who people will be attracted to is not actually that hard, and if you get a match and aren’t attracted, you tell us why and we’re able to improve future matches. Heck, some people email us pictures of their exes and we use that t
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    by laurenkay 12y ago

    Considering that this is the biggest complaint we've heard, we're also considering adding a way to sign up without Facebook.