Kai Risdahl

Yeah, it's a great question.

So I started seeing ads for them all the time.

And I think the way that, you know, Instagram advertising works, you look at something for five seconds and then all of a sudden you're getting a million ads.

And I became really curious about whether they worked.

Are you like the target demographic?

Who are these apps trying to get?

I think in a way, yes, and in a way, no.

I think I'm the target demographic in that I'm Gen Z, I'm young, my job is often remote, and so I don't see a lot of my coworkers face-to-face all the time.

But I also think that these apps really specifically target people who are working in really high-earning fields where they work really long hours, and so they maybe don't have the time to invest in hobbies, but they have a lot of disposable income to put towards a paid algorithmic friend-making service.

So in 45 seconds, you tried them.

What was it like sort of experientially?

Yeah.

So I was a little cynical, I think, going into it about what this was going to be like.

I think I did not have a lot of faith in the idea that an algorithm could actually match me with people who I could connect with.

I think that I enjoyed my experience.

And I came out feeling like I could see use cases for this where it makes a lot of sense.

Like people talk to me a lot about how it's really great for solo travelers, for example.

And that makes a ton of sense.

I think for me personally, as a method of friend making, though, I did kind of maintain my initial position of like, yeah, this probably isn't for me, but it was interesting to try.

Out of pocket costs other than like the dinner that they set you up with.