The Uber of Online Dating

New startup Dating Ring wants to be more like Uber than Tinder — the 20-something founders of the site are aiming to take some of the grunt work out of the wonderful, awful, exhilarating, and frustrating experience of dating. Tinder “matches” you with local hotties who dig you (or at least dig your posted pics), but if you decide to actually meet up with said hottie, you may or may not get what you saw in the app. Folks lie. Just so you know. But Dating Ring wants to ease that stress a bit. Just like Uber screens drivers, the Dating Ring screens members. That's the pitch they gave recently at a Y-Combinator event anyway. Once a person fills out an online membership application (which only company staffers can see) their team meets up IN PERSON with the potential member and other new potential members. Then, the Dating Ring folks work some kind of matchmaker magic and send out an invite for a six-person group “date.” All six people are vetted and specifically selected for that particular group outing because the matchmakers feel there’s potential for chemistry. They collect feedback afterwards about what was awesome or not and who seems like a potential love match or bff or brunch buddy or what have you. It’s 20 bucks per date and, according to them, 70 percent of their users go on a second date. That’s a pretty fantastic stat and I’m kind of loving this matchmaking group date idea. As someone who has never used a matchmaker or online dating app/service, this truly sounds promising. The Dating Ring is only available in New York and San Francisco right now, so you’re out of luck at the moment if you’re not near one of those cities. Sawy! But the good news is that if I do decide to jump into matchmaking pool, I promise to divulge every juicy morsel of the experience. But I also must add that when I saw the Uber comparison, I was thinking that you could order up a tall, dark, handsome whatever and he'd come meet you where ever you were in under 10 minutes. That, my friends, would be the Uber of dating services.