Dinner Club#7 : Being vulnerable
Hello Dinner Club fam,
As I was trying to make matches yesterday, I just realised we’ve now completed 75 dates over the last 7 weeks. Despite the heartbreaks, ghosting and sleepless nights, I am immensely proud of what we’ve accomplished so far as an experiment. It’s also very encouraging when investors, partners or media agencies reach out to support or interview. It’s not easy running this experiment while juggling a day job, full-time co-parenting and doing my half of household chores. So if you ask me, what I am looking forward to the most is being able to sleep 8 hours a day from September.
A huge shout out to each and every one of you who is a part of this experiment as it’s not easy to put yourself out there and be vulnerable, especially now. So, please give yourself a pat on the back from me. As much as all of us long for company, it’s also really easy to grow comfortable with me-time and not have that invaded. I am so impressed that almost every single one of you is always on time for a date, and some of you come in so well dressed ready to rock the date. It gives me energy to keep going too. So, thank you.
About this week
My favourite part of this week was the outcome of a date I was nervous about setting up. They’re both writers/ journalists from the same city and you know how small that circle can be. But it turned out that they were meeting each other for the first time on Dinner Club and they were glad to connect.
But on a funnier note, I set up someone on a date with a girl he’d referred to Dinner Club. We all had a good laugh, and obviously I cancelled that date. But to my credit, the girl hadn’t mentioned who she was referred by in her application form, so I am just going to pat myself on the back for doing a good job of figuring out that they’d be likely to get along.
Despite a third ghosting on Dinner Club, this week was great. Here’s what some people had to say:
I haven’t felt this vulnerable in a long time, so thank you for doing this.
Learned many cool, new things and got reading/tv show recommendations
She was perfect.
Absolutely loved talking to my date!!!
You matched us superbly in terms of interests and work.
Learnings
We’re still going fairly strong with the double opt-ins at 40% and with at least one side saying yes at 85%. So, this isn’t a terrible waste of time after all, huh?
On an average, younger people continue to enjoy Dinner Club dates way more than older people.
Men and women are having an equally great or okay time on Dinner Club.
Despite having a great time on the dates, 15% of you still don’t want to go on another date with the same person. Ummm.
People who don’t want to meet their dates again overwhelmingly mention that they “lack common interests”. People who want to meet their dates again talk about “fun”.
Dinner Club Events
I feel like an absolute dimwit for screwing up the event yesterday. It was originally set up on Airmeet, but we ended up doing it on Google Meet. Unfortunately, a few of you couldn’t attend it because of my screw up, I am so sorry. I will make it up to you guys during the next event.
Although it was a lot more chaotic than it would’ve been Airmeet, it was really nice to see everyone’s faces with their beautiful smiles. I am amazed that almost every one of you who turned up on Google Meet turned on your video and said hello. By sharing why you are on Dinner Club, you invited each other into your life a little bit. It felt awesome to be vulnerable together. I had more fun than I’d expected, and I know some of you did too.
Here’s what some people said about the event:
It was great! helped put a lot of things in perspective.
I really liked seeing everyone, the introductions, and connections! Liked hearing everyone's opinion. :)
It was great to interact with everyone, also to show there are others sailing on the same boat.
What’s up next week?
Now that the applications are closed, I’ve had a chance to go through everyone’s profiles. There are definitely a few of you that I simply do not have suitable matches for within your preferred age groups. So, over this week, I will be reaching out to those of you who’ve been awesome in trying out Dinner Club but I’ve been less than awesome in not being able to set you up.
I’ve spent a lot of time this week going back and forth rescheduling dates and cancelling dates. So, henceforth, all dates will happen only during 3 slots (Thurs, Fri & Sat at 9PM). I am sharing the availability tracker once again, so you can update your availability during these slots over the next 3 weeks before Dinner Club ends. This way, I also know that you are truly interested in going on a date and are less likely to ghost.
I am setting aside Thursday-Saturday evenings over the next 3 weeks for those of you who’ve been intending to do a session with me as once this experiment ends, my hands will be possibly be full in another exciting new project.
If you’ve friends who couldn’t be a part of this experiment, but would like to be in the future, you can share the link below so they can “register” their interest.