Let The Dating Begin! Loves New Venture With Lola Founders Paul English & Rachel Cohen

Get ready for some exciting news! Today, we’ll hear all about Lola, a brand-new dating app exclusively launching in Boston. I think it’s safe to say that intentional daters are tired of mindless messaging, time-consuming chats, and the frustration of virtual dating pitfalls. Lola is designed to get you on real dates with real people on your schedule. Lola is about to revolutionize your dating experience by creating genuine connections, scheduling dates at your convenience, and eliminating the clutter of multiple conversations. Imagine conversing solely with only those you're interested in meeting face-to-face. Get ready to say goodbye to endless swiping, catfishing, and ghosting and say hello to dating because Lola is putting dating back into dating apps. 

This week, we have the privilege of hearing from the masterminds behind Lola, its founders, Paul English and Rachel Cohen. Paul English is an entrepreneur, philanthropist, the founder of six start-ups, and the co-founder of the travel industry giant Kayak.com. Rachel Cohen has a background in Human Resources for renowned fashion and luxury brands such as David Yurman and Diptyque Paris. Together, they combined their expertise to create a dating app that focuses on matching based on availability. They'll share why Lola stands apart from traditional dating apps and how it could redefine your dating journey. And they’ll also share with us their story and what’s in store for us with Lola.

Kerry Brett, Paul English, and Rachel Cohen cover a lot of ground around what’s working in online dating and how Lola plans to create a new community and change the dating culture. Topics include;
·      The benefit of a dating app centered on matching based on availability.
·      Their Journey to love and the inspiration behind Lola:
·      Paul and Rachel shared their serendipitous meeting on Bumble four years ago, sparking a conversation that eventually led to identifying the common problems in existing dating apps and, later, falling in love, getting engaged, and launching Lola.
·      Rachel discusses the experiences that fueled their passion for addressing these dating app challenges, emphasizing the need to reinvigorate hope for the discouraged.
·      Rachel highlights Lola's calendar-based matchmaking system. Introduces the 4-day timeline, benefitting users and empowering women to take control of their dating schedules.
·      Fast-tracking dating: Paul explains from a male perspective why immediate in-person meetings can revolutionize the dating landscape, expediting genuine connections.
·      Rachel sheds light on how Lola caters to single parents or individuals with restricted availability, maximizing dating opportunities.
·      Paul draws from his tech experiences to simplify and enhance Lola's user interface, ensuring it's both familiar and efficient.
·      How Lola plans to filter out non-intentional daters.
·      Lola's review feature, offering constructive feedback while eliminating non-genuine or uninterested users.
·      Why Lola values quality over quantity: addressing the trend of excessive conversations Lola's commitment to quality interactions rather than volume.
·      Enforcing rules for genuine engagement: Paul advocates for a no-nonsense approach to discourage habitual cancellations.
·      Anonymous feedback system: the benefit of anonymous post-date feedback, aiding users in self-improvement and finding better matches.
·      Rollout plans and recruitment events: Insights into Lola's rollout strategy, inviting potential users to join and engage.

To learn more about Lola, visit www.lola.com and follow on Instragram @lola_dates.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Get ready for some exciting news today we'll hear all about Lola, a brand new dating app exclusively launching in Boston. I think it's safe to say that intentional daters are tired of mindless messaging, time consuming chats, and the frustration of virtual dating pitfalls. Lola is designed to get you on real dates with real people all on your schedule. Lola is about to revolutionize your dating experience by creating genuine connections, scheduling dates at your convenience and eliminating the clutter of multiple conversations. Imagine conversing solely with those who you're generally interested in meeting face-to-face. Get ready to say goodbye to endless wiping catfishing and ghosting and say hello to dating because Lola is putting dating back into dating apps. I'm Carrie Brett and shot at Love starts now. This week we have the privilege of hearing from the Masterminds behind Lola. It's founders Paul English and Rachel Cohen. Paul English is an entrepreneur, philanthropist and founder of six Startups and the co-founder of the travel industry giant kayak.com. Rachel Cohen has a background in human resources for renowned fashion and luxury brands such as David Yurman and Dipti Paris. Together they combine their expertise to create a dating app that focuses on matching based on availability. They'll share why Lola stands apart from traditional dating apps and how it could redefine your dating journey. And they'll also share with us their story and what's in store with Lola. It is my honor to welcome Paul and Rachel to the show today. Hello, welcome to Shot At Love.

Speaker 2: 1:44

Hi Carrie , it's good to see you. Hello,

Speaker 3: 1:47

How are you?

Speaker 1: 1:47

Good to see you guys and before we start this incredible conversation, congratulations on your engagement.

Speaker 2: 1:55

Thank you. That's pretty new news that happened um, about a month ago.

Speaker 1: 1:59

Great. You seem so happy and have fun. You meet online, you get engaged and now you're helping others find love.

Speaker 3: 2:06

Yes, we're very excited.

Speaker 1: 2:08

So the two of you use the dating app, which is just a tool and you met on Bumble four years ago. Now I wanna hear both of your sides of the story because it's usually always a little different. Paul, you were in New York City. What happened there?

Speaker 2: 2:25

I spent a lot of time in New York. It started for work reasons, but then I really just liked the scene in New York. I like hanging out, I like seeing live music. I have a lot of friends who either are from New York still living there or who moved to New York. So I, I found over time the more I'd go there for business meetings. I ended up staying an extra night or an extra two nights and just kind of enjoying the nightlife there. And because I was spending so much time in New York, I put in my Bumble profile when I was in New York that I was in New York and lucky for me, you know, Rachel and I matched four years ago.

Speaker 1: 2:56

That's so nice. So Rachel, part of me thinks you must have been pretty optimistic and I always wonder about the people who are traveling. You know, I'm in Boston, do you wanna catch a Red Sox game? You know, that type of thing. You matched and you just must have had somewhere this optimistic attitude.

Speaker 3: 3:16

I'm still trying to figure out to this day how we match because the preferences didn't exactly align but for whatever it was, we matched. Um, while he was in New York, I think he said he was here for business and somehow he asked me out and like immediately we ended up going on a date and we just had so much chemistry right off the bat that it kind of just started from there.

Speaker 1: 3:35

You could see the chemistry between the two of you and you say that because there wasn't a lot of chatting and you met right away, that was one of the reasons why you think you worked out.

Speaker 3: 3:47

I think we matched and then within a day or two we ended up going out on an actual date. I probably would've looked and realized, you know, his preferences were outside of what I had put and I wouldn't have probably actually gone on the date, but it worked to our favor and then when I got there we just ended up having all this chemistry in such a good time.

Speaker 1: 4:02

Paul, what did you think? Like you said you liked going to New York City, you must have been optimistic too when it's the right person, it doesn't matter really where you are, you kind of figure your life

Speaker 2: 4:12

Out. You know, when Rachel and I connected, we flirted a little bit in the app and then we started texting each other and very quickly, it's kind of funny how sometimes you can feel a connection even through texting. Like Rachel's very witty and I just enjoyed texting with her and we said let's meet and we met like the next night and just had an amazing night that went very late and that's where it began four years ago.

Speaker 1: 4:37

What was the neighborhood? West? West

Speaker 2: 4:38

Village. West Village.

Speaker 1: 4:40

And instantly there was a connection.

Speaker 3: 4:42

Yes, but I will say so we had , we were at San and Bros and Bradley Cooper and Anna Wintour were sitting directly next to us. So I was trying to pay attention to Paul while also trying to pay attention to that <laugh> .

Speaker 1: 4:54

That's amazing.

Speaker 3: 4:55

<inaudible> . And I don't think Paul had any idea who they were or what was going on.

Speaker 2: 4:58

<laugh> . The funny thing is , uh, Carrie , we go back there every year for our anniversary and last year, which was our third anniversary, they were sitting next to us again or not? No, it was Anna Wintour and Bradley's girlfriend were sitting next to us. Wow. And I just had to say something. So I went up to Anna Wintour , I didn't know who she was at all until after the first date Rachel told me about her. But I went up to her and I just said, I'm sorry to bother you but I just wanna let you know that my girlfriend and I sat next to you and Bradley on our very first date and here we are in Inverse and you're here again. So anyway, that was fun and she was very polite about it.

Speaker 1: 5:34

That's nice. That's crazy. So these are these like chance moments that you can't make up even if you tried.

Speaker 3: 5:41

So once again we were like something, it's saying something <laugh> , right?

Speaker 1: 5:44

And I know when I met the two of you, I started talking at the bar about a dating app and the two of you were like, what It , it was just so real that all of us were so passionate about helping people find love dating apps, what works, what doesn't work. And I think one of the things about the two of you, you saw right away that there were a lot of problems and you quickly came up with solutions. I think that's really interesting that you both had this passion or curiosity really about what works, why can't we fix this problem? I mean people struggle like crazy trying to find love and with technology today it shouldn't be this hard.

Speaker 3: 6:30

Yeah, I think there's a lot of dating apps out there, but no one's really changing the way that people date or doing anything that different. Okay. So on one the female message is a male first or on another one, you know, it's like for you know, a certain demographic or something like that. But no one's really changed it to make it so that it's easily accessible. And then also taking in people's reaction after the date and giving them feedback and kicking off the wrong people off your app so that you have people all there for the right intentions.

Speaker 1: 6:59

I'm interested, Rachel, was there anything that happened to you when you were dating? It must have bothered you enough because now you are here and you want to create a solution . So you had mentioned to me that when you were dating a lot of the people that you were dating had very complicated schedules.

Speaker 3: 7:19

Um, I think being in New York, you know you have a lot of business meetings that go late and then also there's people with like young children and they're going through a divorce. So I would often see like , uh, people rescheduling on me or like it would just be lots of conversation for like weeks at a time and then we'd go on a date and it was like, okay, we probably could've gone this out of the way, like we had a great date but it wasn't the right fit necessarily or the chemistry wasn't there and you can't tell and texting back and forth for you know, a week or two or it would be like very sparse. So for me it was about getting out there, meeting people quickly and I think especially after Covid hearing all my friends, that was definitely something like it became more of an activity sitting on, you know, at home chatting with people rather than getting out there and meeting people. Right.

Speaker 1: 7:59

And I think it's still a problem. I think I just went into the city yesterday and I can't believe how many changes have happened and if you're not used to going into the city a lot, you make a bigger deal out of it and, and you get used to being at home and you really have to push yourself and treat it like a job in a sense. You have to make it a priority.

Speaker 3: 8:23

If you think about it , pre covid people used to go sit at a bar and you'd talk to people at a bar and you'd meet people and people go up to each other and mingle and now everyone just kind of sits in their seat and you know, they're not really speaking in groups or going up and talking in the same way. And I think this will help kind of bring that back.

Speaker 1: 8:38

I think so too. And I know you both feel the same way that Boston is a city to do this because it's, it's manageable, it's it's smaller. I love the city of Boston personally being a Bostonian, but I just think this is a great place to launch . What do you think Paul

Speaker 2: 8:56

Boston is great city in that it's known for many different things and there's many different types of people. It's one of the best tech centers in the us it's great for finance, it's great for education with Lola, we're hoping to get people out of their bubbles and meet other people in the city, people that they might otherwise not come in contact with. The thing about Lola is we're really, really motivated to get people to go out on an actual date like soon after they meet. When you install Lola, the first question we ask you is what night do you want to go out? And so if you install on a Monday, we say, do you want to go out on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or Friday? And you have to pick a date immediately. If you pick Thursday, we then only show your other people who are ready to go out on Thursday.

Speaker 1: 9:41

This is so interesting. I think this is the best part about the dating app. What do you think Rachel? I kind of think that women will really love this because then we don't have to sit around and wait all this time for a guy to ask us out.

Speaker 3: 9:57

It helps just with scheduling in general, but I think it takes some of that like awkwardness away of waiting for someone or if I should ask them yet if it's too soon, not too soon. So I think this automatically just makes it that we're both ready to go out on a date, we wanna meet in real life, see if there's something there. We still have a chat aspect to it. So after you match with the person available, you still can chat with them up until your date. So it doesn't take that Foley away. But I think this takes some of the awkwardness and the planning and makes it much easier for people.

Speaker 1: 10:23

How do you think it will affect men ? Paul?

Speaker 2: 10:25

One of the interesting statistics we learned about dating apps when Rachel and I started doing our own research and looking at the competition is that men swipe right on about half the people they see in their feed. Women swipe right on maybe one out of 20. So women are way more picky than men. However, if you're too picky you're not gonna work well on Lola. And the reason is if you swipe left to reject, say 50 people in a row, we're gonna remind you that Lola's, some people want to go out on dates this week. If you don't connect with someone, we're gonna kick you off the platform. Like we're really encouraging people to say meet in person and there might be someone you meet that you might not have thought was perfect, but they might be that perfect person you're looking for. They might be your soulmate, maybe they didn't meet all your criteria, maybe they're a little older, a little younger, a little taller, a little shorter, whatever. Then you're quote unquote ideal circumstance. But that might be a soulmate, someone that you otherwise would pass up. So we're basically telling people have some courage and go meet some actual people.

Speaker 3: 11:31

Yeah, I think that's really what we're trying to do is get people out there. I mean we have different options for people looking for something more casual. We have someone people looking for relationship and then we have something for more for friendship and you can put what you're looking for. But the idea is to get people out there muting in real life building connections. And not every single person is gonna be the person that you fall in love with or you know is your final story ending. Happy ending. But at the end of the day we want everyone to at least be able to go out, have a good experience with people, meet somebody new, learn something new, and that's what we're really aiming to do.

Speaker 1: 12:03

And you can't be good at something unless you do it repetitively. So I think it's a great way to get people back in the game and sometimes it's just to get them moving forward. So Paul, you like to solve problems, that's one of your specialties. And when you first started to research, now this was Rachel's idea. So Rachel was like, okay, let's do this. And of course you want the data data and you did a survey and you noticed two, was it two things that that rose to the top of people's concerns?

Speaker 2: 12:39

The first one was people said it's just way too much work, too much chatting, too much swiping. It's just you had to go through thousands and thousands of messages and swipes before you found something to go out with. So just like it is too much. So we're gonna solve that. And Rachel's original idea was pick the night of the week and then we'll find someone that night that solves that problem. The second problem that we heard when we did the research is that people said they met someone in an app and they thought they were okay but they met in person and the person was like a jerk or just like a terrible date, like a bad time. And so we want to help that as well. That's the second problem we wanna solve. And the way we're gonna do that is at the end of the date , and Rachel had mentioned this earlier, we're gonna basically say, let's say you match with someone named Brian on a Thursday night. On Friday morning we're gonna message you. I'm gonna say, did you go out with Brian last night? Yes or no? How would you rate your experience with Brian on a scale of one to five if you rate him a one? We have a couple more questions to see like was he unsafe or whatever. And then after you rate him, we just ask two more questions really quick. We say, which of these positive attributes do you associate with Brian ? So he was very polite, he was funny and he dressed well. And then we say, do any of these constructive feedbacks resonate with Brian And you'll see how he talked about his ex-girlfriend too much and he was on his phone too much during the date. Then after you've been out on five dates, we message you again and we say, do you wanna see what the last five men we went out with what they said about you? And we're not gonna show you what one specific guy said, but we're gonna give you feedback and we're gonna do this to coach people on being better daters. So if you see that people you go out with basically say you're on your phone too much, it's a note yourself next time you go out, try turning your phone off. We want to get to the point where Lola is such a good community of daters. We want to make people better daters, but we also wanna make people like better humans and better companions. It's almost we're the point where we want anyone at Lola to have dinner with anyone else at Lola and have a good time because we've coached them on how to be a good dinner date, like a good companion.

Speaker 1: 14:53

That is incredible. I love hearing this because I help a lot of people who are in a group where they feel like, oh I'm too old, I'm good. They're really kind of boxed in and I think it is just fear. I think if they had a few more friends doing it and they saw that it was a good experience, then they would try it. But I think it becomes very overwhelming for people, especially the time waste part of it. And I looked on your Instagram Lola's Instagram and I could not believe that the average American will swipe 3,960 times before finding love <laugh>. That's eight months and 11 days and almost six hours a week's a

Speaker 2: 15:40

Lot. That's crazy.

Speaker 1: 15:41

That doesn't make sense. I mean if you think of AI and where technology is gone and how you can do certain things and how I can do this podcast and reach people all over the globe, that does not make sense that we're spending this much time, something's not working. Time is so precious. I didn't know that almost 20% of dating app users juggle conversations with 11 or more people at once. I mean I knew it was a lot, but when you look at the numbers like that, it's kind of jarring.

Speaker 2: 16:11

Yeah, it's overwhelming. I mean dating apps work. They get you to meet people that you might not otherwise bum into, but it's a lot of work to do it and people are sick of the work and they want something simpler. And that's what we're trying to do with Lola

Speaker 1: 16:25

And that's your specialty. And I like what you say about it, Bumble did work for you, but you can develop something else that's different. I liked Tinder personally, it worked for me at the time. That was in 2015. Would it work for me now? I don't know. I mean there's more, there's more options. So there wasn't that many options back then. I had Match and Tinder that was it. Hinge. I tried to join and they wrote me back and said we don't have enough people on the app yet. <laugh>. I was like, well that's surprising. I think this is great. I think with your tech background you'll be able to figure things out quicker because you have the experience of building other startups and you also both were in the trenches of online dating, which is really interesting. And the other thing too, Paul, you had mentioned it, you're divorced, you're a parent. Let's talk to the person who's divorced, the single moms and dads out there. Why do you think that this is just a no brainer for that group?

Speaker 2: 17:28

I know when I first got divorced and I started dating, it was a lot because you have your job and then you have your kids, whether it's going to soccer practice or whatever, there's always different activities. And when you'd have a night off or a couple nights off, it's like, all right , I'm free Thursday 'cause my ex is gonna take the kids. What do I wanna do Thursday night? Like I, I wanna go out. And if you're using dating apps, it's too complicated. Particularly if it's two divorced parents trying to coordinate their childcare issues with each other. Lola just makes a lot easier because you just say you're free Monday night, we're gonna show you other people are free Monday night. It's like cut to the chase, tell us night you wanna have a nice dinner and we're gonna find someone to sit across from you.

Speaker 1: 18:12

When you are a busy professional and you're a single parent, the time window becomes even smaller when you can see each other. And as a woman you want , you don't wanna be like, I have the whole entire weekend free but then I won't be free for two more weeks. You're not happy about it. Like you wanna spend more time but you can't say it because you don't wanna look too eager. So I just like this, you can make good use of your time when you don't have your children. I think it's gonna be really effective. And then from Rachel's point, 'cause I know with my boyfriend he wasn't a parent and it was a lot easier for us to combine because he didn't have all those complications. He wasn't pulled in as many directions he could work around my schedule.

Speaker 3: 19:03

Yeah. So I think this makes it super simple. So it's really just what your availability is. I mean especially if someone lives in a different state even and they're going back and forth for work or if they, you know, have friend groups and they're trying to you know, do that. This just makes it super simple for anybody. Now

Speaker 1: 19:18

I heard you say something like maybe it was in an article about Lola Paul where you said if you're gonna have all these meetings for work, you you really, really going to be strict about this is not a dating app for people to come and chat and find pen pals and have an knee or stroke <laugh> or whatever. People dopamine hit whatever people use. 'cause some people are just passing time.

Speaker 2: 19:44

The very first time we install Lola it says Lolas are people who want to go out this week. Then you continue and we say, what night do you wanna go out? Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday even the next four nights there's a little button that says I'm not ready to go out yet. If you click that we say low lists of people who want to go out this week. If you just want to chat, we highly recommend Tinder a Bumble. Those are great apps for chatting. And we say that tongue in cheek , it's a little bit of a you to those apps because those apps, people just chat endlessly with 11 people on average at a time. But if you're ready to go out then use Lola.

Speaker 1: 20:20

And it is really discouraging When I remember I was texting some person and I'm like, oh okay, he seems nice. Well he was a dentist in Wisconsin. I'm like, I'm not, I'm never going to Wisconsin <laugh> like this is early to today . So it was the wild wild west. But I remember being like, oh that's great, I just wasted all this time talking to someone in Wisconsin. You do waste a ton of time with the wrong people. You could be doing other things like going on a date with the right person. Yeah. Rachel, do you have any friends maybe that are your age that are just so discouraged and burnt out and have had it with dating apps? How are you the two of you guys going to work with that group? Because that's a big group, that's a big audience

Speaker 3: 21:05

I think any age. But the one thing I hear a lot is that they go on a dating app for like three weeks. They get so frustrated with the process. They'll go out with someone that looks a certain way on their profile, they get to the date and it's like a completely different person or completely different information. And it's been like three weeks of 'em talking to them and then they're like, okay, I'm done. I'm never going on a dating app again. Or they've had a bad experience on that date two weeks later. Well I haven't met anybody, I haven't met anyone in person yet. I haven't gone out I they redownload an app. So I think it's this like horrible process. We really wanna eliminate all of that. We wanna make it safer, we wanna make it easier and try to get rid of some of that bad behavior as well. And I think that's one thing we're really targeting.

Speaker 1: 21:43

How great would it be to find the love of your life, the man of your dreams. Do you believe online dating would work if you had the right tools to be successful? Well I have exciting news. I've created your best shot at Love Masterclass. I cannot wait to share with you what's worked for me in my life and for many of my clients that have helped over the years. If you enroll in this class, you have a winning mindset and believe in getting help before you start something new. If you're ready to see changes in your dating life and wanna take action, check out my free webinar@shotatlove.co. If you decide you're going to choose another path that you're worth it and you're willing to enroll in the masterclass, you can also register@shotatlove.co. I designed this masterclass specifically for you to be successful. Please know that everything you're going to learn in these nine modules and six coaching calls has been carefully curated for you so you can gain the success you truly want. I will be there for you the whole time. In the meantime, I wish you all the success and I can't wait to hear about your story of finding love. I'm Carrie Brett and I will be your mentor and friend through this incredible journey. It's a four day window that you can pick, say Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday,

Speaker 3: 23:08

Four day roll calendar.

Speaker 1: 23:09

Okay. And then you're only gonna be matched with people that want to go out on those dates.

Speaker 3: 23:15

It'll be a four day rolling calendar and then you only match with people available the same night as you.

Speaker 1: 23:19

But if you don't wanna go out with any of those people,

Speaker 3: 23:22

So there is a unmatched button. So after you match with a person, you go into a conversation with them . So you can only have a limited amount of conversation at one time. Mm-hmm <affirmative> . Um , but if you no longer interested you can unmatch with that person and then it puts you with the next person available that has, you know , that you matched with for the same night as you again. So it would be that cycle. But if you see it as a continuous cycle, we're not gonna allow that. So we'll kick you off if it's like you're constantly doing that. And then we also have a reschedule button. So like we're not asking for people to do that all the time, but let's say something pops up and you have to move your date. We have a button for that as well or an option for that.

Speaker 1: 23:56

You both were busy professionals when you met, but if you're really busy and you have a lot of meetings or sometimes people's profession, it's like a busy like tax season or right now as a photographer, the , the holidays are really busy. Everybody wants family portrait. So there are times when you're busier than others and you're gonna have to reschedule. Let's talk about that, the rescheduling component. How much do you think it's gonna happen?

Speaker 3: 24:23

I mean we're hoping not that often, but we understand that things do come up and we understand people need to reschedule. So there's an option to reschedule in the app, which means like it would give you a new night to reschedule and hold that as a placeholder or you can do it offline on your own. Like once you get , you exchange phone numbers and you're able to do that. But if we notice that it's a constant for you, we'll give you a reminder to kind of like nudge you to not to do that so often. But if you continue to do that, we're going to ban you from the app.

Speaker 1: 24:47

Yeah, I think so. Because if you're late, if you don't appreciate people's time, it's not good luck <laugh>. I mean I get like something can happen but I don't think if you keep canceling on someone, you're gonna get that date back.

Speaker 3: 25:03

Yeah. So we wanna make people better daters. That's really what we're trying to do our better, you know, companions or whatnot. So we're, we're trying to give people that heads up , okay, well we've noticed that you've canceled a lot, you can't do that. Like we have to respect people's time. But if you're continuing to do that then you're, this is not the right platform for you pretty much.

Speaker 1: 25:19

Okay. The other thing I wanna talk about, and so people, a lot of people don't know this about Paul, but Paul likes to go out and meet people and one of the things you did was drive an Uber, which I think is amazing and there's a rating system with Uber. So this is kind of like Uber in a sense where you're rating these daters.

Speaker 2: 25:37

Yeah, I had a blast driving Uber. I started doing it before the pandemic when a company I was running was about to install a rating system for our customer support agents. And our agents had a lot of anxiety about being rated like what if the customer's a jerk and it's not my fault. So I said, all right , let me get a job where I can get rated . And the easiest thing for me at the time was Uber. So I started driving around. It was kind of fascinating. Like one of the things I really liked about it was getting outside my bubble and meeting people that I wouldn't normally meet. I all over Boston. And then a second thing was learning something from everyone. I have a notebook and I wrote down one sentence from every passenger and that was really fun. And then the other thing I learned was when I've taken Myers Briggs test, I test as an introvert that I'm naturally a little introverted and I get like going to cocktail party is the worst of me. It was like it uses a lot of energy and I need to like go take a nap or something afterwards. It can be exhausting. Or go into a conference, which I did last week in Uber. I set this goal that I want to talk to everyone and it was just one-on-one or sometimes two people or three people. I was able to get everyone talking with me and I will say I'm very proud. My rating is 4.4 0.96. I think I did a good job of getting people to talk.

Speaker 1: 26:54

I like this and, but you also can be Paul, the Uber driver, <laugh> , you know what I mean? People just always associate me with the photographer. Now podcaster, people size you up and they put you in a box.

Speaker 2: 27:08

I drove a girl who was 12 years old, she was in China and she's visiting with her mom and her aunt and the , the three of them were in the backseat of my car. And the mom and the aunt didn't talk at all, but the 12 year old talked a lot. One question I often ask people is, are you guys from Boston? Just as a way to open up conversation. And she said No, they're visiting from China and they were here in Boston because she wanted to look at high schools in Boston. I said, that's so cool, why do you want to go to high school in Boston? And she said, well my dream is to go to MIT and I thought if I went to high school in Boston, I'd get a better chance getting in. I said that's amazing for trouble to think that. And I said, I actually teach at MIT and she didn't believe me. And she said, if you taught at MIT , you wouldn't be driving for Uber <laugh>. And I said, I actually have a lot of lives.

Speaker 1: 27:53

That would be my dad's dream job to drive an Uber because he loves to be in his car driving around. He knows every street in Boston and he loves to meet new people. I think this is so great. We've gotta get out. We are definitely still a long ways away since C-O-V-I-D . You have to push yourself past the fear of what if it's not a good date, what if something happens? It's sure it might not be a person, but for the most part you meet a new friend or a new client. And I'm gonna be curious about the rating. So Rachel, talk about that rating system. I have two schools of thought on this one. I think it's great because you're standing true. You wanna make people better data , you wanna make people better humans, you want good experiences, you're, you're really curating this community. But speak to the person who has a lot of fear

Speaker 3: 28:50

Right now. It's not a numerical rating that you're gonna get. Okay . It's really more or less about the feedback loop. The numeric rating's really there for us to learn more about you and what you like and what you don't like. Okay. And the type of person that you're going on dates with and you're saying you're having a good experience with or not such a great experience with. So we can give you better dates. So we do have a machine learning component with this as well down to the point where we're able to see if you are liking someone who has, let's say you know dark hair and pictures with a tiger and you're giving them, you know, higher ratings, we're able to then say plus that maybe they're funny and fun and they dress well, we can then curate, you know, your dating to gear more towards something like that. And then the numeric ratings also there to help provide, if someone gives you a one to make it, that we understand why. So if someone's unsafe, they feel uncomfortable, don't match their profile, we're taking all that into account to then take action to remove them from the app. But the rating is really about the feedback loop. So if you talk about your ex too much, maybe you wore too much fragrance, maybe you didn't offer to pay and that could be either side. So we're really trying to give people feedback to improve how they go on dates and how they interact with other people.

Speaker 1: 29:59

Whether you want it or not, you're gonna get feedback after five dates.

Speaker 3: 30:03

The first part is to help provide us with feedback to give you a better date. But then after every five dates you can opt in . So it's your choice. We're not pushing it on anybody, but there's a lot of people who wanna grow from these experiences and we wanna offer that.

Speaker 1: 30:17

Yeah. And I think you can grow from it and if you're open to it, I think it would be smart to be open to it. 'cause we all have a blind spot. We all do something

Speaker 3: 30:27

And we're offering positive feedback too . It's not just the negative side of it. So maybe you dress really well or you're really fun or funny or you're really worldly and you're witty some , I mean we're giving all of those options and the positive are gonna show on your your profile as well.

Speaker 1: 30:43

Let's talk about the rollout. How are you gonna do this in Boston ? What is it gonna look like?

Speaker 2: 30:48

We put out an RFP for marketing agencies to help us get the message out. We talked about 20 agencies over the last month. Rachel and I, we hired a new great CEO based in New York named Gertrude Allen, Rachel and Gertrude together are now evaluating all those agencies. We're gonna select one hopefully this week to begin marketing in December. And we have a budget, we're prepared to spend some money and we're gonna do whatever it takes to get the word out. We're gonna do guerrilla marketing, we're gonna be handing out flyers, going to big events, going to snow port , going to other places in the city and just trying to get the word out as much as we can. We know Carrie , that you're gonna be very helpful to us with this show and with other things that you do with all the singles you're connected to. Yeah . And just hope that the message will resonate with people to say, we're gonna get you out on actual date , so we're gonna get you someone sitting across the table from you and you're gonna have a good time.

Speaker 1: 31:38

There's things already that I can see with this that it's very special and down to, I went on your website today and it was like, oh , you take a a screenshot and then it takes you right to the app. I've never seen that before. I mean, maybe I'm not as tech savvy as the two of you <laugh> , but it just seems like you can, if I'm out at snowboard, which you know I'm gonna do as a test <laugh>, but <laugh> , it's a way to get people open up your phone, become a member, get on the waiting list. And I like the exclusivity of it too, where you're putting it out there. We're not for everyone. If you wanna go out and date, we're the app. If not, if you, if you don't wanna behave <laugh> and you wanna be an unintentional dater , go somewhere else.

Speaker 3: 32:30

Yeah, we're exclusive for kind people. <laugh> .

Speaker 1: 32:32

That's so great. That's so nice. I am so excited about this. So what have you guys learned so far since you started this? You're not exclusive to any age group and you see I think across all different age groups why this is gonna work.

Speaker 3: 32:48

Definitely. I think we originally had expected to be like a younger demographic with really just young professionals and maybe people just starting on getting divorced and things like that. But we've really been quite surprised with the skew of the different age range of people that are interested and that have been writing to us. That's the other thing that I've been really surprised about from since we've started putting ourselves out there. The amount of feedback we've gotten from people about how excited they're about something different, they're frustrated with what's currently out there and they can't wait to try something new. I definitely didn't expect to get that many emails and feedback right off the bat.

Speaker 1: 33:22

Yeah, I I'm not surprised that you have as well because the dating apps haven't had to change because they've got the market cornered in a sense. It's like Amazon or Netflix, <laugh> . We can identify that a lot of things aren't working, but there hasn't been a lot of changes really. They are screening more for safety and certain things are being flagged there . There has been improvements, but I don't think enough improvements.

Speaker 3: 33:47

I was out the other night and we were talking to somebody and they were telling me about a dating app that they were with and they had told me the name of it and I said I went on. 'cause I was, you know, obviously trying to learn as much as I could about every dating app possible. So if anyone has seen me on a dating app, I'm not single, but I'm, you know, doing my education for this. But they told me the name and they said that there's 90,000 users. And I said to 'em , there's no way I've looked at the profiles. They all have similar, if not the same date that they were created and that you can't match with people or go out and whatnot . And they said, okay, how did you figure that out? And I said, well, I just took the time to actually look and explore. There's actually 5,000 users on that app, so 5,000 actual users out of 90,000 profiles that people are on. So there's dating apps that have created fake profiles in other countries that like people will sit there and chat with you. Right? There's apps like this where they've created 'em to make it feel like there's something. So we're really here to try to change the way people go on dates and change that experience for them .

Speaker 1: 34:44

And I think Boston's a perfect place to do it. Paul, speak to the Boston audience because on my show they're listening <laugh> because that's where the numbers are. I definitely have a larger Bostonian listenership.

Speaker 2: 34:56

I think Boston's a great dating city. There are so many great venues that go out. Rachel and I last week went to Grace, which is a new jazz club in Seaport. It is like the coolest place to see live music in Boston for a small venue. And that'd be an incredible place for a date night. There's so many good restaurants, sort of old classics in new restaurants that are opening all the time. And we're gonna find the person to go out with you to that jazz show or to that restaurant.

Speaker 1: 35:23

Totally. And I think the Seaports are a wonderful place where they have all these great date type of restaurants, get a whole bunch of single people there and do recruiting events every night. People would come just to the recruiting event because then they could meet people. Yeah, like a single mingle. It's such a no brainer.

Speaker 3: 35:48

I mean, I think one thing that I can say have not been born in Boston and you know, living in New York for a long time is that Boston's such a diverse place. There's, you know, you have high education, you have technology, you have people coming for activities and I think that it doesn't have to just be dinner. It could be an activity that you guys both love to run and you wanna go for a run or you know that you wanna go rowing. There's other things that evolve than just a drink or dinner. And I think that's something also to really think about.

Speaker 1: 36:15

And the other thing too, when you mentioned the younger age group, it's a college town. I see it with my daughter's age group. These kids are struggling. They don't, they don't have the education of appropriate language and how to put yourself out there to hold your worth. There's definitely need for a good, safe dating app where people can find nice kind people.

Speaker 3: 36:41

We were talking to a college kid the other day and they were telling me that they have a bot that chats for them and that they were talking to another person who has a bot chatting for them. And I'm like, what is that solve ? So you just have two bots talking to each other. <laugh> .

Speaker 1: 36:53

Wow, that's crazy. <laugh>. I think it's interesting how Paul drove the Uber because he's wants to meet all types of people and you can learn a lot of information from a young people and you can learn a lot of information just by getting out on the scene and talking to people. This is gonna be really fun to watch. And I'm obsessed with you guys, <laugh>. I'm just obsessed with the whole thing. I think it's, it's so great.

Speaker 2: 37:23

Yeah , we're having a lot of fun and we can't wait. So right now the app is live. We have about a thousand people that have created accounts already. We want to get up to 5,000. As soon as we get to 5,000, we're gonna open the doors and dating will start happening. And that's gonna happen sometime in December. But at achiev , just go to lola.com now and follow the download link and get your profile set up. And as soon as we open up, you'll be notified so that we will say, let the dating begin.

Speaker 1: 37:48

Oh, that's great. You'll learn so much just when you can open the doors. Yeah. And then you can implement some changes if you had to or add a new feature. I think it's gonna evolve really, really quickly. So this is wonderful. Thank you so much you guys for your time. Where can people join Lola or follow you on social media?

Speaker 2: 38:11

Lola.com and you'll see all our social media links there as well as an email form. If you want to get in touch with me and Rachel, just email hello@lola.com and it goes to both of us.

Speaker 1: 38:21

Oh, great. Okay. Awesome. Well thanks so much you guys, and congratulations on finding love online and just being incredible human beings. <laugh> .

Speaker 2: 38:31

Thank you Carrie . Really great to speak with you.

Speaker 1: 38:33

Yeah , it was really fun . And for now, this week shot at love dating tips that are inspired by our guests, the founders of Lola, Paul English and Rachel Cohen. Number one, life's opportunities often come from taking the first shot by simply showing up. You've already won half the battle. It's time to show up for yourself by getting back on the dating scene. Number two, being yourself is your greatest asset. Show genuine interest by actively listening and put your phone away. It will show your caring and kind. Number three, embrace the thrill of the unknown and have fun. The most incredible connections are often and unplanned when you're open to new experiences and least expected . I hope you found some of my tips helpful this week. This is what Shot at Love is here for, to help you find love, keep up the commitment to yourself and commit to helping someone else by sharing this podcast. Stay safe and stay tuned for more episodes. And if you like the show, please subscribe and leave a five star review. I'm Carrie Brett and we'll see you next time.